The Co-Principal Investigator on the University of York-UG’s Galamsey Research Team has advised the government to involve residents in mining communities in the fight against illegal mining.

Speaking on Newsfile, on Saturday, Prof Gladys Nyarko Ansah said the locals are witnesses to some of the atrocities caused by galamsey and the effects it has had on them are huge.

“The excavators, these are not items that you can smuggle on the quiet into the forest, people in the town will see. There are hunters and farmers in the villages and they see it. When they see it, what do they do? If we really want to win the fight, engage the people and let the engagement be genuine,” Prof Ansah added.

She said that “don't let us do something to represent something because the people are not fools. When they see that you are only using them as a means to an end, then they refuse to play along.”

Prof Ansah explained that farmers are also at risk of losing their livelihoods because of these activities thus it is essential to unearth the actors involved in the practice through the collaborative efforts of the people and government.

She said that even though security personnel have been placed in areas where galamsey is prevalent, they cannot always be at post to fight perpetrators, hence the need to have people parade their communities.

“When the police go to do an operation in the morning, maximum 10 hours, the rest of the 14 hours where will you be? So when you are sleeping they are digging. We need to have a more serious conversation about this” Prof Ansah told Samson Lardy Anyenini, host of the show.

“Forget about sending police to fight, what we say we want to do in the fight against galamsey, let us mean it…the people who live in the galamsey areas are not happy with the situation, it is very sad,” she added.

Her comment comes after the re-arrest of the ‘galamsey’ kingpin En Huang, popularly known as Aisha Huang.

She was arrested in her residence at Kumasi for her alleged involvement in the sale and purchase of minerals without a license.

Following her arrest, the Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, announced he was set to prosecute notorious ‘galamsey’ poster girl, Aisha Huang for her past and recent crimes.

He requested details of evidence compiled by investigators in 2018 and what has been compiled on alleged recent offences.

“The Attorney General per his request, assures that he will initiate prosecution against Miss Huang, in respect of her current alleged offences as well as those of 2017 before her deportation from Ghana in 2018,” the Justice Ministry added in a social media post.

However, the re-arrest and return to the country shocked many Ghanaians and brought back the discourse on the country’s fight against ‘galamsey’.

Meanwhile, the Director of the Faculty of Academic Affairs & Research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Prof Kwesi Aning has said that punishing Aisha Huang alone will not help eradicate the problem of illegal mining.

Also speaking on the show, he explained that Aisha Huang does not operate on her own and everyone involved in her business must be exposed as well.

“Punishing Aisha Huang alone does not begin to tinker with the problem or the extent of the problem. We need to ask ourselves who are those that have colluded with her, connived with her, facilitated her business to the extent that we are even in doubt if she left this country,” he said.