The Ghana Mine Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress has described the passage of the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulation 2022 (L.I 2462) as the most backward legislation ever passed by Ghana’s Parliament.
General Secretary of the Mine Workers,’ Abdul Moomin Gbana, in an interview on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, told Umaru Sanda Amadu that LI 2462 must be revoked with specialised courts established as part of efforts to win the fight against illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.
“We believe that it is one of the most backward decisions that our Parliament has ever made in the history of this country to have legislated the use of our forest reserves for mining, noting the consequences, perhaps on our environment and so we believe that there must be an immediate revocation of LI 2462 and we believe that, arising from all these things we have put forward, we know that there will be the need for prosecution.
“And so there must be the need to establish a specialised court to ensure the expeditious trial of any issues that may emanate from this fight and so these are the matters that we have put forward and we believe that if by the end of this month [September], these demands are not met, then Organised Labour will have no option but to advise itself.”
Mr. Gbana further warned the situation will worsen if urgent measures are not taken.
“And so we will be embarking on a series of demonstrations and possibly a nationwide strike to press home these demands. If we sit aloof and do nothing about the situation, I guarantee you a year or two from now, it will move from its current state to a much worse state, and so it is important that we do something about it and we do something about it now.”
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