Illegal miners are using intimidating tactics to acquire lands from farmers for illegal mining, the director in charge of anti-galamsey activities at the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Michael Kwarteng has said.
Reports are rife that some farmers in mining areas have given up on using their lands for cocoa farming and are selling their arable lands to illegal miners interested in exploring it for gold to earn more.
However, appearing on the Asaase Breakfast Show on Thursday (30 November), Kwarteng said COCOBOD has stepped in to address the menace, adding that a culprit has since been imprisoned.
“There are other factors behind these, most of the illegal miners go and intimidate these farmers using various means to get the land from them, even when they don’t want to,” Kwarteng said.
“Per our interactions, we saw that most farmers didn’t want to give their farms to them, but when they go, they deceive them that the government has given the entire land for concession and so they have no right to say no.
“Even the price, they give them, they don’t give them the chance to negotiate,” Kwarteng added. “These are some of the factors, some chiefs and opinion leaders were even involved.”
Listen to Prof Michael Kwarteng in the attached audio clip below:
Sensitization
Kwarteng said COCOBOD has stepped up education on the law that protects cocoa farms from the activities of illegal miners.
“As we speak we have sent most of the cases to court and just last week we even had our first verdict where the person was sentenced for destroying cocoa trees.
“Now we have started sensitization of cocoa farmers to know some of these laws and the measures COCOBOD has rolled out to curb these menace and now cocoa farmers feel secure because initially they thought there was no law backing them,” Kwarteng said.
