Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa wants all political parties in Ghana to reject funds doled out to them by galamsey kingpins.
According to the lawmaker this is one of his proposals to help in curbing galamsey, which ought to be strictly enforced with appropriate sanctions.
Okudzeto Ablakwa was surprised that in the entire fight against galamsey, not even an overlord or an actual financier has been arrested.
According to him, galamsey is a capital-intensive venture, such that the poor youth who are mostly arrested at the various sites cannot afford to purchase the sophisticated equipment needed.
He then proposed a plan to arrest the faces behind the menace, which is to announce an amount of money as reward for anyone with information to arrest the people behind galamsey.
Mr Ablakwa posted this on his Facebook page over the weekend, which attracted several comments.
He was of the view that instead of hurriedly burning excavators, attention should be paid to their unique chassis numbers and readily available technology to track the real people doing the galamsey.
However, this position has been debated by others, who say most of these excavators are not registered with the drivers or vehicle licensing authority, making it difficult to trace them.
Read Ablakwa’s post below;
It strikes me as really strange that in this entire galamsey fight we have not had one galamsey overlord, one real architect, an actual financier arrested and prosecuted. Isn’t that where the fight should have started from?
We all know from the kind of sophisticated equipment at play that only a few moneybags can initiate a galamsey operation.
Instead of hurriedly burning excavators, shouldn’t we pay attention to their unique chassis numbers and readily available technology to track the real McCoys who imported or purchased them? It’s definitely not difficult to follow the ownership trail.
Is it not time to put out a handsome amount of money as reward for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the “big men/women” behind the destructively criminal galamsey gang? Remember those cloaked with authority over intelligence gathering say they do not know the real henchmen.
Also, in exchange for their freedom, shouldn’t we get the small flies we arrest at the galamsey pits lead us to their real bosses? How many of them wouldn’t find this offer irresistible?
Where is EOCO to long begin following the proceeds of this organised crime by lawfully freezing bank accounts and identifying assets of suspected bigwigs linked to galamsey as we take sincere steps to smoke out the shadowy perpetrators-in-chief?
Finally, can all political parties in Ghana publicly declare a zero-tolerance policy for party financing from galamsey overlords at all levels. This ought to be strictly enforced with appropriate sanctions.
I am just thinking aloud on how the latest round of galamsey fight wouldn’t end up as a farce like all the others.
Only fearless truth and unquestionable integrity can be our saving grace. God help the Republic.
The post Reject funds from galamsey kingpins appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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