The President of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), Mr Kwabena Dwumfour, has expressed the association’s com­mitment to the fight against illegal mining, known in the local parlance as ‘galamsey.’

According to him, the association was worried that forest reserves, wa­ter bodies and farm lands were being destroyed and degraded, all in the name of gold mining.

He said this when he addressed a press conference on issues affecting the nation and welfare of Journalists.

The GJA president indicated that in the mining communities, law and order were crumbling with impunity, with associated human right abuses, adverse and forced possessions of individual lands and farms while the decentralised administrative arms of government and traditional authori­ties seem to be helpless.

Turning his attention to assurances given by President John Dramani Ma­hama to fight illegal mining, the GJA President stressed that those assur­ances were welcomed, but urged the President to honour them.

“We welcome the assurances and commitment of President Mahama to­wards the fight against galamsey and it is our prayer that he will not relent or give up but honour his promise of stopping illegal mining in the coun­try,” Mr Dwumfour emphasised.

He pledged the GJA’s support for the government in curbing the men­ace.

“We reiterate our condemnation of all illegal mining activities and demand urgent steps to be taken to tackle the issues head-on. There should be strict enforcement of all mining laws and regulations with­out any concessions, as well as the imposition of maximum sentences on offenders. This is a reliable approach to addressing this issue,” Mr Dwum­four added.

“The GJA urges the media to maintain the galamsey issue at the forefront until the menace was eliminated. As indicated in previous press conferences, we will not stop highlighting the issues until Galamsey stops,” he urged.