Deployment of military to combat illegal mining unconstitutional – Consultant

Energy, environmental law and sustainability consultant Dr. Jamal Tonzua Seidu, has described the deployment of the military in government’s quest to fight illegal mining, commonly called galamsey, as unconstitutional.

Dr. Seidu told Citi Breakfast Show host, Bernard Avle on Tuesday, October 15 that the deployment of the military for internal security circumstances is secondary and must not be abused.

“The manner in which they are using the military is an abuse of our constitution. Under clause 3 of Article 210 of our constitution, the military has a mandate for defense. There is a core traditional mandate of defense from external aggression but the developmental role of the internal security operations of the Ghana Armed Forces is secondary and I think we are abusing that.”

Government on Thursday, October 10, deployed over 100 armed military personnel to various water bodies in a renewed effort to clamp down on galamsey.

The action follows growing agitation from over 50 state and private civil society organisations, urging the government to address the environmental devastation caused by galamsey, which has severely affected the Ghana's water bodies, farmlands, and forests.

The environmental consultant also disclosed that there are some elements within the military that are not happy about the deployment.

“The military is a self-contained institution and very conservative and not the most vocal of people. I know military elements that are not excited about the way they are being abused whenever there are serious policy issues and out of laziness, we just securitised them and deploy them.

“No soldier is excited about going into that failed operation because it is tainted with corruption and you cannot come out of that operation being clean but because the soldiers cannot engage you, they can’t tell you this.”

-citinewsroom