Deputy Director of A Rocha Ghana, Daryl Bosu, says the nation must treat the deaths of eight people in Wednesday’s military helicopter crash as a turning point in the fight against environmental crimes.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Tuesday, August 12, he said the tragedy, which claimed the lives of two cabinet ministers, should never be ignored, especially because it occurred on the day the government was set to launch a major initiative against what he described as “environmental terrorism.”

“We were all anticipating that these people were going to join us as well, and then we would have a very great program. Because I think we were all very interested in the program the government was launching, but we thought that we needed to really deal with the menace of this environmental crime around us,” Mr Bosu said.

He stressed that the launch was an important step toward holding the government accountable for ending environmental destruction.

“Any program that was going to help us do that, we’re also going to be there to listen and make sure that we keep the government accountable and also responsible for everything they have said. So we were really looking forward to this.”

But for Bosu, the tragedy that struck on such a significant day has given the fight against environmental crimes a deeper meaning.

“To have this, I will say, serious sacrifice. And this was a sacrifice on the day of such a launch, for me, is, really significant in the sense that, eight people had to sacrifice their life for this initiative we want to do, and it’s also kind of an initiative to rid our country of this menace, of this environmental terrorism that we’re experiencing. So there’s no way we can sit down and ignore this sacrifice.”

Mr Bosu called on the government and citizens to treat the moment as a wake-up call.

“Yeah, we cannot… something we need to really take seriously. If we’re thinking of just letting this responsible, cooperative mind go on as just like the committee mining was, then this should be the turning point.

"Nothing should be the same ever again. We need to do things differently. We need to deal with this menace once and for all.”