The Media Coalition Against Galamsey (Illegal Mining) is calling on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to arrest and prosecute owners of a mining site at Asumenya, near Manso Nkran, for allegedly kidnapping, assaulting, and seizing the equipment of three staff of The Multimedia Group.
Similarly, private legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, lamented
the attack on the team, including journalist, Erastus Asare Donkor, by armed men, said to be working on behalf of the Edelmetallum Resources Limited, the mining firm, in the Ashanti Region.
Dr Kenneth Ashigbey of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, and Mr Kpebu condemned the acts, when contributing to the super morning show of Joynews, monitored by the Ghanaian Times, following the incident which happened last week.
Dr Ashigbey noted that the IGP needed to take swift action to show how seriously the police took issues related to attacks on journalists, especially given the role Mr Asare-Donkor has played in the fight against galamsey.
“If the judiciary had been attacked, if the Executive had been attacked, if the Legislature or the Judiciary had been attacked is this the attitude the police are going to show?” he quizzed.
Dr Ashigbey added that the coalition would consider legal action against the inaction, to make sure that the perpetrators were called to book.
Mr Kpebu said the act was fuelled by impunity, explaining that perpetrators of similar inactions in the past were not punished by authorities, hence the repetition.
He cited the case of Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who was reported for illegal mining in the Tano forest two years ago with photographic evidence, but the IGP, Dr George Akuffo Dampare, refused “to take the case forward.”
He said this lack of prosecution of Chairman Wontumi, sent a signal of impunity that emboldened other politically connected persons to avoid prosecution.
Mr Kpebu further indicated that owners of the mining site should be the first to be arrested, as they hired the thugs to commit the crime on their behalf.
“In the facts of this case, they hired other persons to commit a crime for them, so they have to be taken in. I am seeing the Vigilantism and Related Offenses Act being applicable, “Mr Kpebu noted.
He said the perpetrators’ refusal to respond to the Police’s invitation was also a sign of authorities’ failure to punish earlier perpetrators.
Three staff of the Multimedia Group, including award-winning journalist, Mr Erastus Asare Donkor, were attacked by at least ten heavily armed men claiming to work for Edelmetallum Resources Limited in the Ashanti Region.
The men forcibly abducted the team, took them to an undisclosed location, subjected them to brutal beatings, and later abandoned them.
The team had been filming the destruction caused by illegal mining when the attack occurred.
Portions of the newly restored Asenanyo Forest Reserve have recently seen another spate of destruction, and streams joining the Ankobra River have also been polluted.
An official complaint has been lodged at the Manso Edubia police station to investigate the incident
BY TIMES REPORTER
