Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has taken a firm stance on the government’s approach to dealing with illegal mining, especially involving foreign nationals.
Speaking on Starr Chart with Bola Ray, Gbande pointed out that imprisoning offenders, particularly non-Ghanaians, is counterproductive and drains the country’s limited resources.
“Once you arrest somebody, it’s an expenditure on the state. If you jail the person, it’s an expenditure on the state,” he stated, arguing that the cost of incarceration far outweighs its deterrent value when it comes to foreign nationals who come to Ghana with no intention of respecting local laws.
“If you’ve come from your country with the sole purpose of being irresponsible in ours, when you are caught, it doesn’t matter your investment you should be taken out and banned from coming.”
Gbande, who claimed firsthand experience with the issue, suggested that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government had once taken a more effective approach to handling such cases.
“That is what the NPP did, and I’m saying this because I know it, I’ve been in the field,” he said, implying that deportation and bans serve as better deterrents than prosecution and jail terms that ultimately cost the state money.
Turning his attention to Ghanaians involved in illegal mining, Gbande advocated for swift justice and a system of reparations.
“If you’re a Ghanaian, you should be taken straight to court and given an ultimatum to go and repair the damage. If you don’t do it, you are jailed. When we do that, by the time we jail a thousand people, we will set the system right.”
