The newly appointed Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr Frank Amoakohene, has sparked social media joy after giving illegal miners (galamsey) workers in his region two weeks to vacate their sites or face arrest.
Dr. Amoakohene, during a press conference, announced that anyone involved in galamsey in the Ashanti Region has two weeks to leave the site and find a different profession to engage in because at the expiry of the ultimatum, all hell will break loose.
He said that unlike the previous President, Nana Akufo-Addo, who condoned the menace, President John Dramani Mahama has pledged to eradicate it and he will do his best to ensure that vision becomes a reality.
He said: “Anyone in the forest reserve mining should vacate those places. We are giving them up to two weeks. If you are mining within the forest reserves and you don’t want to be on the bad side of the law, you have two weeks to leave the place,”
Illegal mining locally known as galamsey has become a menace in Ghana within the past few years, particularly in the second term of the former President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo. Things became so bad at a point that most water bodies in Ghana became polluted, to the point the Ghana Water Company announced they could no longer safely purify water in certain areas.
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Social media users, reacting to the news, were ecstatic that a government was finally taking action.
“Action not words 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Kudos honorable minister 👏🏾” one user said.
Another wrote: “Men at work 🙌🔥🔥…. the resetting I voted for 👏”