Be firm on Chinese illegal miners – Lloyd Amoah to gov’t

The Head of the Centre for Asian Studies at the University of Ghana, Dr. Lloyd Amoah, is impressing on the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Peter Amewu, not to succumb to the subtle diplomatic pressure from China, in the fight against illegal mining.

The Chinese Ambassador and the Mayor of the Guangxi Zhuang Province, where majority of the illegal Chinese miners come from, on Monday met Ghana’s Minister over the issue.

Mr. Amewu during the meeting begged the Chinese delegation “to help us address this particular difficulty that we are having” in the mining sector.

But close watchers of the situation believe Ghana is failing to crack the whip on Chinese illegal miners due to its diplomatic ties with the Chinese government.

Dr. Amoah in an interview on the Citi Breakfast Show asked the Minister to protect Ghana's interest first.

“…The onus is on us, it's our country, it's our waters, it's our land and therefore within that framework, we should be firm. In China, when Ghanaians or other nationals are arrested, they follow the law…they will always tell you that the Chinese law is supreme and therefore it should fall in line that within our context, the Ghanaian law is supreme and more so the national interest of our country,” he added.

Be firm – Dr.Amoah tells Lands Minister
Dr. Amoah further encouraged Mr. Amewu to fight galamsey without fear or favour.

“…We should send a clear message to anyone in the galamsey sector including our own people, including the Chinese and anyone else that in this time, we are not going to allow the poisoning of our waters and the destruction of our land whether you are a Chinese, Japanese, American, Ukrainian or Russian, Ghanaian law will be applied. And I think that the President of our Republic who has always defended the rule of law will be behind this thing. So we should apply the law and continue to do so to send the signal that this is not a country that is prosecuting itself.”

Five Chinese illegal miners arraigned
This comes on the back of the arrest of five Chinese illegal miners in the Western Region.

The five were arrested together with five Ghanaians who were mining for gold on the Ankobrah River. They have since been remanded, waiting to appear in court again on April 10, 2017.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Zoe Abu-Baidu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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