The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has made significant gains in the fight against illegal mining across the country, with the arrest of persons involved, the seizure of weapons and the destruction of equipment.
By the first week of this month, the organisation had seized 94 excavators, destroyed about 3,000 changfans, seized 59 weapons and arrested 237 persons involved in galamsey, with the majority of them being Chinese nationals.
The Director of Operations at NAIMOS, Colonel Dominic Buah, said this yesterday at the Editors’ Forum & Quarterly Press Briefing, providing an update on the fight against galamsey across the country.
He said although the galamsey situation had gone down, “we are not out of the woods yet”.
For him, the successes chalked up so far had been phenomenal.
Other items seized included 905 water pumps, 58 vehicles, 37 motorbikes, 208 rounds of ammunition, four payloaders and13 generators.
In total, there were 122 operations under a 10 month period -July 2025 to March 2026.
Five underage persons were found at sites while there were 93 Ghanaians who collaborated with foreigners.
The total number of Chinese involved were 109 with 32 Nigeriens, two Indians and one Vietnamese.
Threat
Col Buah said weapons in the hands of galamseyers, especially the pump action guns they carried, posed a huge national security risk, as the least provocation could result in them using the arms in their possession.
He warned that members of NAIMOS would not sit back and allow those weapons to be used against them, adding that “therefore I am sending a warning out there once again that anybody who dares, NAIMOS would deal with them ruthlessly”.
“It is a problem we are trying to address, but we have the right to self-defence,” he emphasised.
Regarding the seized weapons, Col. Buah said they were intact and that he had received a letter from the Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission stating they would be documented.
Excavators
Col Buah indicated that the use of excavators was decreasing, and that in the past, members of the task force used to come across between 10 and 20 excavators, but now they hardly came across any and the ones they did see were already immobilised.
“Unfortunately, the galamseyers are also smart.
They keep coming up with new ideas for fixing the excavators.
Now, a lot of equipment has been destroyed,” he said, and stated that the excavators seized by NAIMOS were intact and secured and that the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources would render an account on them while the government would make a decision on them.
Col Buah said the secretariat had begun collaborating with the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GISEC), which had started packing all the damaged changfans and other metal components that could be put to other use.
Coordination
“Initially, one aspect that was ignored was the involvement of the chiefs and local communities.
Then, even the District Security Committees (DISECs) and Regional Security Committees (REGSECs). The point is that they are the people at the grassroots.
Therefore, if you don’t look at them very well, you may get things wrong, so they have all been involved now,” he said.
Col Buah also expressed grave concern about the involvement of children in galamsey, saying they were ignorant about the dangers they were bringing on themselves.
On a positive side, though, the NAIMOS director of operations stated that it supervised the reclamation of 800 acres of land at Manso Adubia in the Ashanti Region, saying “these are huge positive gains which NAIMOS is making.”
Foreigners
On the arrests of the foreigners, who are mostly Chinese, Col. Buah explained that there was a network that trafficked those people and that there was a need to take a look at that area, as those were the people destroying the country’s water bodies.
He stated that a Chinese man tried to bribe an officer with GH¢163,000 when he was arrested.
Though he had been sent back to China, information gathered indicated that the person was attempting to return, but “we would keep an eye on him,” he stressed.
He said there were two women among the foreigners arrested.
Source:
www.graphic.com.gh