MCAG to premier ‘galamsey’ drama

Media Coalition Against Galamsey and Globe Production will on Saturday, March 24, 2018 premier anti-galamsey drama at  Tarkwa in the Western Region.

The one-hour and thirty minutes drama which is  entitled “Sin and Sinner” will  be used as a viable tool to intensify education on how to fight against illegal mining activities in the mining communities in Tarkwa and its surrounding communities.

The event which  will be  solely funded by STAR-Ghana will  be attended by traditional rulers, farmers, staff of decentralised departments and agencies, students, the media and other members of the general public.

Addressing a press conference in Accra yesterday, convener   of the group , Mr Ken Ashigbey, noted that drama was  another impetus to the fight against illegal mining.

Rallying support for galamsey fight , he said “we have done  well  in the fight against galamsey but  a lot more needs to be done to ensure sustainable mining in Ghana”.

“What we have decided to do is to use drama to tell the negative  effects galamsey has  on our water bodies and environment.

“Since we embarked on this  fight, we have had some successes, including improvement in the turbidity of some water bodies and the moratorium on small-scale mining/ galamsey, but the illegal miners have changed their modus operandi and are going to precarious places at night,” Mr Ashigbey said.

According to him, the justice delivery system seems to be the weakest link in the fight against illegal mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’ in Ghana.

The Coalition was  of the view that, “the fines that are being imposed on perpetrators of the illegal act by the law courts are not punitive and prohibitive enough to discourage people from engaging in galamsey”.

Flanked by the Managing Director of New Times Corporation, Madam Carol Annang, Mr. Ashigbey said, with the Minerals and Mining Act, Act 900, “if a Ghanaian is found to have engaged in ‘galamsey’, he or she would be fined 2000 to 20,000 penalty units”,

The former Managing Director (MD) of the Graphic Communications Group Limited said “for foreigners, the fine is between 30,000 penalty units and 300,000 or up to 20 years imprisonment”.

Mr Ashigbey said when Aisha Wang and four others were arrested by the Immigration Authorities, and were  brought to court, charges preferred against them were only under the Immigration Act while they were suspected to have contravened the Minerals and Mining Act as well.

“It has to take a member of the Coalition, Occupy Ghana to petition the Attorney-General (A-G) before a change was made”, he said.

Story: Freeman KORYEKPOR AWLESU

Source: https://www.todaygh.com/mcag-premier-galamsey-drama/

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