The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II has called for the immediate arrest of illegal miners in the country. This, according to him is a pragmatic means to curb the effects of their operations. Okyenhene's call, which he made in an exclusive interview with Myjoyonline.com Tuesday, is coming after the effects of galamsey operations in the country, the Eastern region in particular, have led to severe flooding and the loss of lives due to river Brim over-flooding its banks. The Okyenhene who has been a major campaigner against activities of illegal miners said for him, “...the reckless and the irresponsible way of mining” in the country is his greatest worry, indicating that he, and President Mills and several personalities have made several calls for the galamsey mining to stop. He revealed that after these calls, “no one did anything about it and I knew it was going to come to this because they have diverted the Brim River and they throw all kinds of things in it.” Osagyefo said it was unfortunate that as a country we have allowed foreigners, Chinese, to put mining equipment on the Birim River to drop cyanides and mercury on our river, he narrated, adding that “this thing (flooding) that happened is man-made, we have disturbed the course of the river, we throw all manner of things in there and we don't care.” The recent flooding in several communities in the Eastern and Volta regions has claimed five lives with several houses submerged while farm lands and livestock have also been destroyed. “The point is, if there are no jobs and we want our people to mine, there are better ways to do it. License the people, make sure they do the right thing, make sure the government does not lose,” he advised. According to him, the central government owes the gold and diamond that is mined in the country “and if people are destroying and stealing it, whose responsibility is it enforce the law?” Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin II therefore called for the immediate arrest of people who are involved in illegal mining, those he said “are committing the crime and let [them] show you who gave the land to them so we can put an end to it.” Many have blamed the increasing spate of the illegal practice on chiefs who give out lands for the nefarious activities. Osagyefo however stressed that it is a weak excuse for people to blame chiefs for illegal mining in the country. Although he will not mention the names of chiefs who may have been involved in the illegal mining, he said “...if a chief at the crack of dawn in some village has been approached by somebody to give land for mining, that in itself is an illegal transaction, (but) you and I will not know what has gone on.” “When the perpetrators are in broad daylight destroying property, whose business is it to arrest them?” he questioned. The Okyenhene said 16 excavators were arrested and later arraigned before court. The court, he said later freed all of them. He said it was rather unfortunate that we continue to destroy our lands and abuse nature in the short term only to have long term effects. His Royal Majesty extended his condolences to families affected by the recent floods. “We send our condolences to families that have lost their lives and those who are suffering because of this flood and we need to do something to stop this menace.” He called for funds to be sourced to reclaim the destroyed lands, cover them and plant trees to regain back the lost vegetation. Story by Ernest Dela Aglanu/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana