Executive Director of the Consumer Protection Agency, Kofi Kapito, says he supports a shoot to kill order for security officers confronting violent illegal miners or galamseyers.
According to him, the level of the illegal mining menace and the growing attacks on state officials show that being lenient is not an option.
He made the comments while speaking on JoyNews on November 10, and monitored by NewsDesksGH.
“If you allow any illegal business that has a lot of money involved and the people get into it, it is difficult for you to stop it. And that is where we are heading towards,” he explained.
“I think we need to get a little bit strict or do some sacrifice. Because we cannot allow the civilians to attack our military people.”
His position was based on the recent violent confrontations between illegal miners and law enforcement officers.
“If we had given the military people shoot to kill order and killed about 50 or 100 people, this thing would’ve reduced drastically,” he said.
“They should give the military and police people, anybody that gets out of order, shoot him, and shoot to kill.”
“We need to get to a certain level that the state should take charge,” he added.
Lawyer and entrepreneur Victoria Bright, who was also on the show, agreed with some of his sentiments.
“The galamseyers are rather shooting to kill, and they are heavily armed,” she noted.
“We cannot allow a situation where there’s a perception that any illegal group is actually above our security forces. That’s very dangerous, that’s a disaster.”
The discussion follows a series of violent attacks on state officials and journalists by armed illegal miners in recent weeks.
On November 7, a joint team from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and journalists was attacked during an operation near Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.
The team was attacked by armed miners and forced to flee, resulting in a head-on collision involving one of their vehicles.
Several journalists were injured, including a Multimedia cameraman who required surgery.
On November 1, members of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) were attacked by a mob of over 600 residents in Bronikrom, near Hwidiem in the Ahafo Region, after seizing mining equipment.
A NAIMOS vehicle was vandalised during the incident and the mob attempted to burn down a police building.
