Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and Convener of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Ken Ashigbey, has issued a sharp rebuke to politically exposed individuals allegedly engaged in illegal mining, holding them morally responsible for the deaths of eight Ghanaians in the recent military helicopter crash.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the media on Friday, August 8, Ing. Ashigbey urged Ghanaians to transform their grief into action and demand genuine accountability in the fight against galamsey, stressing that tears alone would not honour the lives lost.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI am appealing to the emotions of all of us Ghanaians that we should not just weep for this case and let it pass. We should channel that into positive action. This should be a point of reflection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
He further called on the government to go beyond deporting illegal miners\u2014especially foreign nationals\u2014and ensure that offenders are fully prosecuted under Ghanaian law.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe should not just deport galamseyers but make sure they pay fully for the fines stipulated and serve the full sentences that apply. We need to send a strong signal that Ghana is closing this criminal business.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cAll of those politically exposed people who are involved in galamsey, the blood of these eight is on your head. You\u2019d better have a change of heart, repent, and step out of it. Enough is enough,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The fatal crash occurred on Wednesday, August 6, in the Adansi Akrofuom District of the Ashanti Region, claiming the lives of Defence Minister Dr. Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed\u2014both known for their uncompromising stance against illegal mining.<\/p>\n
Also among the deceased were Muniru Mohammed, Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator; Samuel Aboagye, a former parliamentary candidate; and Samuel Sarpong, Vice Chairman of the NDC. The military crew\u2014Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Manin Twum-Ampadu, and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah\u2014also perished.<\/p>\n
Preliminary reports indicate that the officials were travelling aboard a Ghana Armed Forces Z-9 helicopter to Obuasi, a hotspot for illegal mining activities, when the aircraft went off radar.<\/p>\n
A state funeral will be held on Friday, August 15. Due to the condition of the remains, samples have been sent to South Africa for DNA testing to aid in identification.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Chamber of Mines and Convener of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Ken Ashigbey, has issued a sharp rebuke to politically exposed individuals allegedly engaged in illegal mining, holding them morally responsible for the deaths of eight Ghanaians in the recent military helicopter crash. Speaking to the media on Friday, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123457,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[238,41,3507,17,18],"tags":[2658,3759,3813,3152],"class_list":["post-12456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime","category-general-news","category-national","category-opinion","category-politics","tag-galamsey","tag-ghana-news","tag-helicopter-crash","tag-ken-ashigbey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/123457"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12458,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12456\/revisions\/12458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fishfmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}