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A Tarkwa Circuit Court presided by Hathia Ama Manu has sentenced two Nigerian nationals to a 20-year-prison term for engaging in illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey.
The convicts, Ayodele Jackson and Benjamin Obin were arrested at Bepoase, a suburb of Prestea in the Western Region for engaging in the practice.
They pleaded guilty to the charges and were sentenced on their own plea which will see their terms run concurrently.
The convicts told the court they were unemployed and hungry hence their decision to resort to the galamsey work as a means of surviving. According to them they only indulged in the act for about three weeks before their arrest.
Briefing out the fact of the case, the Prosecutor, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Juliana Dadzie told the court that a complaint was made against the accused by two officers of the Minerals Commission.
According to her, the two Minerals Commission staff Emmanuel Morrison and Bismark Mansoh, on a routine patrol in the Prestea area, spotted the accused, with about fifteen others engaging in illegal mining activities with two excavators, a washing plant and a water pumping machine at Bepoase.
Upon seeing the two officers, the miners fled, but the officers managed to apprehend the two expatriates.
They were then handed over to the Police alongside their mining equipment including the pumping machine and one excavator control board.
The court presided over by judge Hathia Ama Manu described the circumstance under which they had entered into the illegal business as “unfortunate”, and stated that, “the country is at a point where our water bodies, especially those of us in the Western Region, have been destroyed due to illegal mining.”
The Court thus said that the accused had no excuses to justify destroying the environment and hence were sentenced due to the severity of their offence on their own plea.
The Court ordered that after serving their sentences, the two men be deported to Nigeria.
The court also ordered that the excavator, with its control board and the water pumping machine be confiscated to the state which will be in the custody of the Minerals Commission.
