Government’s efforts to bring an end to the unlawful venture of illegal mining popularly known as “galamsey”, which has depleted lands, water bodies and loss of lives has proven futile despite starting a campaign in 2017 to end it.
Five miners met their untimely death last Sunday after a ‘galamsey’ (illegal mining) pit closed in on them at a community called A4 within the Adumbanso Lower Electoral Area, a farming community in the Wassa East District of the Western Region.
The five, consist of four females and one male whose name and age were given as Samuel Abekah known in the house as Kofi Tawiah and 18 years respectively.
According to reports given by the Assemblyman for the Adumbanso Lower Electoral Area, Albert Kwasi Kwakye, the five were met with the unfortunate incident while engaging in mining activities when the dugouts sand caved in on them.
He said, he alerted the Police immediately he was called and the Police came and performed the necessary action on the bodies but the deceased persons were found dead on arrival when they got to the scene.
The bodies were retrieved and deposited at a private mortuary at Funko pending investigations.
The Wassa East District is one of the notable areas known for engaging in the illegal mining business.
In an interview with Samuel Abeka’s father, Mr Kwasi Abekah, he told Kwame Offei, host of “Adzekyee Mu Nsem” on Spice Fm in Takoradi that his son is a JHS 2 student at the Apewosika Basic School near the University of Cape Coast (UCC) in the Central Region.
He lamented that his son was with him in Cape Coast however, for some time now he had been staying with the mother in Adum Banso due to the closure of schools as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
When asked about the living conditions of the family, he explained that he is a worker at the UCC who places a premium on education and that the son and the mother who works in an oil palm plantation are not in hardship conditions which will push the boy into “galamsey”.
“Even though we are divorced, I take good care of my children and wasn’t aware that my son was into “galamsey” and the mother never told me, so i was surprise when the news about his death in a “galamsey” pit was broke to me”, Mr Abekah stressed.
He therefore appealed to the Police to conduct a thorough investigation into the death of his son to give justice to his son.
Story: Seth Ameyaw Danquah
