Lands Ministry probes alleged security links to galamsey
What began as a routine anti-galamsey operation along the Ankobra River has quickly escalated into something far more serious, with allegations that individuals within Ghana’s own National Security apparatus may be providing cover for illegal mining activities.
The Lands and Natural Resources Ministry moved swiftly on Thursday, constituting a fact-finding team to dig into claims that emerged during the interrogation of four armed suspects arrested at Dominase in the Nzema East Municipality on Wednesday, May 20. Under questioning, the suspects alleged they were operating on the instructions of individuals known only as “Ras”, “Mambo”, and “Nana Teku”, men they identified as National Security operatives based in Prestea.
Ministry spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf did not dismiss the claims. If anything, he suggested they confirmed a pattern that investigators had been picking up on for some time.
“First off, the reason we even reported the persons who are alleged to be involved in this operation who are purportedly members of the National Security is the fact that it has become very apparent that galamsey operations in that part of the country seems to have the complicity of certain people who ordinarily should not be involved,” he said in an interview on TV3’s News Central.
What made the ministry act fast, Schandorf explained, was not just this single incident but a recurring trend. Each time NAIMOS conducts operations in the Dominase enclave, the same feedback comes back, that those behind the illegal mining have powerful backing.
“Repeatedly, anytime NAIMOS goes on an operation in that particular enclave that is the feedback we get, that the activities of the men are actually being sponsored by certain persons who are supposed to know better,” he added.
Sector Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah responded by immediately commissioning the investigation. “So, basically a fact-finding mission has begun in that respect to unravel their identity and deal with them,” Schandorf confirmed.
The three names provided by the suspects have already been handed to the police to support ongoing investigations. For the Lands Ministry, the stakes are clear, if those entrusted with national security are found to be shielding the very operations the government is fighting to dismantle, the anti-galamsey campaign faces a threat from within that no task force raid can easily fix.
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