Reward Ghanaians who give information about illegal miners - Atik tills government

Social commentator, Atik Mohammed has appealed to government to strengthen the Whistleblower Act to empower Ghanaians offer relevant information about illegal miners in the country.

With an aim to end galamsey, the President has deployed 200 soldiers to mining communities.

The soldiers are tasked to remove all illegal miners and protect the water bodies, particularly River Pra in the Central and Western Regions.

A statement by the Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah on Wednesday read ''in furtherance of the resolutions of the final communique, of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining on April 14 - 15, 2021 and to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped; the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has authorized the Ghana Armed Forces, to commence an operation, to remove all persons and logistics involved in mining from Ghana’s water bodies.

''The operation commenced at 0600 hours on Wednesday, April 28th, 2021 on the River Pra in the Central and Western Regions of Ghana. Two Hundred (200) officers of the Ghana Armed Forces are involved in the operation.''

Speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme, Atik stated that encouraging the locals in the communities where illegal mining, otherwise called galamsey, to tip off authorities about the activities of the illegal miners to help with the fight against galamsey.

He believed the Whistleblower Act will help in clamping down on galamseyers.

"The State should be able to reward people who come forward with information like that. By so doing, you would have made it a collective fight and everybody would have felt a part of it," he stated.