The Constituency Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress for Atiwa West, one of the hotspots for galamsey activities, has shot down the government's approach to fighting illegal mining.

Johnson Amo says the use of the military to intimidate illegal miners is not sustainable and therefore asked for dialogue with the local miners in order to fight the menace.

His concerns come in the wake of the Operation Halt Task Force who struck the area several times, setting fire to excavators and bulldozers belonging to NPP's Women's Organizer, Kate Gyamfua.

"Some of us felt the approach was wrong because you cannot use the military and the police to guard the mining site throughout the day; throughout the week; throughout the year and for that matter, there should have been a concerted effort by having a consultative meeting where the public would dialogue with the state officials," says Mr. Amo.

Atiwa, a hub for illegal mining operations, has had its fair share as far as the fight against illegal mining is concerned.

Three residents of Kwabeng, the district capital of Atiwa West were allegedly killed by the Operation Vanguard team in 2017.

This development is still fresh in the minds of the people, including NDC Constituency Chairman, Johnson Amo.

"When Operation Vanguard was commissioned in 2017 to fight illegal mining (galamsey), we in Atiwa received our share during that time.

"Three young men were apparently killed for no reason. All their issue was why have they followed a low bed carrying an excavator machine; going to be offloaded in a mining site at Akukuso in the Atiwa West District," he recalled.

"Why should they lose their lives," he quizzed.

"They were killed. People were alleging that it was the military from Operation Vanguard. However, nobody was arrested."

According to him, after several months of investigations with no arrests, the immediate family of the deceased have received no help.

"After some few days, they were buried. Now their families are helpless; their wives have become widows. Their children have become fatherless," he said.

Members of the military task force, Operation Halt have struck 3 times on the mining sites of NPP's Women's Organizer, Kate Gyamfua at Pameng, Larbikrom and Dompem.

The team burnt excavators, bulldozers, gold washing machines and other heavy mining equipment.

The task force returned to the Pameng site on Saturday to burn offices and a power plant left behind after previous operations.

Mr. Amo says the approach by the government will not yield any positive result if this approach is maintained.

He wants the Lands Minister to dialogue with miners at local level. According to Mr. Amo, the use of force by the military is not effective to address the galamsey menace as expected since many operators continue to work in the night.

"When you force me to stop me working at day time, in the night I will go and find my daily bread for the next day. So we are appealing to the state security agencies and my special appeal goes to the Minister, Jinapor.

"He is a young man. He should modernize the way we are doing things. He should dialogue with the community.

"He can come down to the various mining communities and engage us and we will give him some of the refined ideas that can shape the fight which all of us would be involved in."