A security expert, David Agbey, has revealed that there are several operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and other security agencies who are directly involved in illicit mining, popularly called galamsey, in the country.

According to him, the involvement of these state security personnel in these activities is hampering the fight against galamsey across the country.

Speaking in an interview with Emefa Apawu on the 505 programme on Class 91.3FM on Tuesday April 4, he said: “Go to the grounds and find out whether BNI officials are not involved in this galamsey business. You should go to the ground in the Western Region, all the districts where they are mining gold, whether BNI officials are not buying big equipment and whether they are not directly involved in this galamsey business.

“Within the security arena many of them are involved in this galamsey business, so the attempt should not be like it is a Chinese man or Chinese businessman who just jumped into a plane, came into this country and identified a certain land and forest somewhere.

“Ghanaians are the direct culprits – we are directly involved, the security agencies are directly involved in this galamsey business – and so we shouldn’t close our eyes and be targeting only the Chinese. There are other indigenes: people from United States, people from Israel, people from Turkey, people from Nigeria, and people from neighbouring countries are all directly involved in this galamsey business.”