Executive Director of the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), Sulemana Braimah, has called for the immediate removal of the District Chief Executive (DCE) for Amansie Central, following revelations from a Joy News Hotline Documentary on illegal mining.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, February 9, while discussing the investigative piece, titled 'A Tax for Galamsey: The extortion racket fuelling illegal mining', Mr Braimah said the DCE should not remain in office for another day.

A Tax for Galamsey exposes how illegal mining in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region is no longer merely tolerated but systematically taxed, receipted and protected by government appointees.

Through undercover reporting, secret recordings, documentary evidence and on-the-ground infiltration, the investigation reveals an alleged extortion network involving the District Assembly and a taskforce operating under the authority of the District Chief Executive.

“Certainly, this DCE doesn’t have to be in the office within the next 24 hours. You cannot say that you are allowing people to destroy the environment and then collecting money to restore the same environment under circumstances where the destruction itself is illegal,” Mr Braimah said.

He questioned why a district assembly would be involved in matters clearly outside its mandate.

“There are Minerals Commission offices, and the Minerals Commission is the entity supposed to regulate the mining sector, not district assemblies. So certainly, this is a matter that I expect that in the course of the day, this DCE must be relieved of his position,” he said.

However, he said that removing one DCE would not be enough to address the wider problem of illegal mining across the country.

“That will be just one district, and it doesn’t solve the bigger problem. I don’t know why it cannot be that if you are a DCE and there is evidence that galamsey is happening in your district, then you are not fit to be there,” he said.

Mr Braimah argued that galamsey activities are often obvious and cannot be blamed on a lack of information.

“Unless we are being told that galamsey activities are so overwhelming that our national security and district-level security apparatus cannot deal with it,” he said.

“If that is the case, then we must accept that we have reached a point where the country can no longer control its territorial security.”

He added that if illegal mining is taking place in any district, whether in Asunafo North, Asunafo South or elsewhere, and the DCE claims ignorance, that alone should be grounds for removal.

“If galamsey is happening and it doesn’t take anything to know that it is happening, then that DCE must go,” Mr Braimah said.