Members of the joint military/police taskforce assigned the job of checking illegal small-scale mining have been reminded to remain professional and refuse to be corrupted.

Colonel Michael Amoah-Ayisi, Deputy Director-General, Joint Operations, General Headquarters of the Ghana Armed Forces, said they should not allow themselves to be lured into acts of soliciting, taking the proceeds or favors from illegal miners.
That, he warned, would compromise the credibility and legitimacy of the operation.

Col Amoah-Ayisi, who also heads the ‘Operation Vanguard’ Monitoring, Coordination and Liaising Team, gave the reminder during a tour of the Forward Operating Bases of the taskforce in Ashanti, Western and the Eastern Regions.
This was to acquaint himself with the existing structures and systems put in place for the smooth operation of the officers and men.

He urged the soldiers and policemen to always “look at the bigger picture”, bearing in mind that the overriding need to protect the nation’s resources and save the environment from destruction.
He said it was a call to national duty and that they could neither fail, nor disappoint Ghanaians.

He expressed satisfaction with the level of cooperation between the soldiers and the police and said things had so far gone well.

Col Amoah-Ayisi indicated that the turbidity of water bodies had significantly over the last three months, something which had acknowledged by Water Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Seized excavators had been ordered by the courts to be confiscated to the state and had been handed over to the district assemblies.
He encouraged the taskforce to sustain the good work it was doing.