The New Patriotic Party Parliamentary Candidate for Amenfi East, Ernest Frimpong has urged illegal miners in the constituency to beat up soldiers who try to stop them from mining.
Speaking to miners in a meeting attended by the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah and some regional party executives, Ernest Frimpong disclosed that the government had dissolved all anti-galamsey task forces, thus no military could prevent anyone from mining.gALAMSEY
“We have annulled all of those activities, and officially, they are not authorized to conduct such operations again. Sorry, soldiers who ambushed you. Operation halt, galamstop, whatever, whatever. So, you have the right to question anyone who comes to your site about his mission there,” He spoke to the miners in Twi.
“The police and security services’ patrol protects you and lowers the number of robbery events, thus it’s beneficial if he claims to be on patrol. As a result, you are only aiding him and I won’t speak out against it if you freely give him three, five, or ten million dollars to spend for fuel.
“If someone approaches you and tells you that he is a soldier, leave the area and disassemble your equipment, don’t be swayed by his uniform, If he beats you, give him the same amount of violence. Fight him, I will come to your defense,” he charged the miners to thunderous cheers from the miners.
The Parliamentary Candidate said that any military action taken while there was no anti-galamsey operation was unlawful and could not be utilized to halt the illegal miners from engaging in illicit mining.
“As I said, the authority with which he could use to arrest you has been seized, hence if you are doing illegal [mining] and he wants to arrest you, he is also engaging in an illegality, so you should also arrest him,” he added.
