Fourteen excavators being used for illegal small-scale mining activities (galamsey) in Atewa East and West in the Eastern Region have been burnt by the Military personnel deployed to fight the galamsey menace.

This comes after Defence Minister, Dominic Nitiwul had earlier stated that all the seized galamsey equipment including excavators will be destroyed on-site by the military officers deployed to the galamsey areas.

He said no gadget will be returned to Accra.

“We are not seizing any equipment, no equipment will be returned home, they will all be destroyed on-site. No excavator, nothing will come back home,” he said at a press conference in Accra on Friday, April 30.

Meanwhile, a private legal practitioner Mr. Bobby Banson has said it is illegal for the government to set ablaze the excavators that are seized from illegal small-scale miners.

He said this on the Key Points programme hosted by Abena Tabi on TV3 Saturday, May 1.

He further suggested that “The owners of these excavators could be arrested and given to the Attorney General for prosecution.”

About 200 officers of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) on Wednesday morning began an operation to forcefully remove all persons and logistics involved in illegal mining on the country’s river bodies.

This, according to the Minister of Information, is in furtherance of the resolutions of the final communique issued after the two-day Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, April 28, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah said the move is “to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped”.