The joint military-police taskforce, Operation Vanguard (OV), formed to help fight illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) menace in the country, should be disbanded because the task force has failed Ghanaians, Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, has said.

According to him, some members of the task force are in bed with the galamseyers and have allowed their nefarious activities to continue in spite of the ban of all small-scale activities.

He also alleged that some of the task force members are taking bribe from the galamseyers in order to continue their business.

The government of Ghana has placed a ban on all small-scale mining activities in the country in order to help deal with the illegal ones.

Subsequently, government formed the Operation Vanguard (OV) to intensify the fight against the illicit trade.

However, Mr Agyapong noted on NET 2 television that: “The Operation Vanguard must be disbanded because they are a failure.

“They were brought to help deal with the problem but they have rather worsened the situation by taking bribe from the galamsayers to allow them to continue destroying the water bodies all in the name of searching for gold.”

“The president and the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources have good intentions with the fight against galamsey but the task force is making their efforts useless,” he added.