What unfolded last week in Bronikrom near Hwidiem passed unambiguously for a threat to the state.
What description can we advance for a situation where soldiers performing an operation on the orders of the President will be threatened with death by irate illegal miners who besieged the Hwidiem Police Station to demand the release of the security personnel for their effrontery…they seized telltale gadgets used for galamsey operations.
Soldiers or police officers or other security agents for that matter represent the state and for them to undergo such ordeal presupposes an unusual emboldening of illegal miners which for us is a national security mess which requires addressing.
Without doubt the hoodlums stand on some strong pillars to do as they wish…impunity.
The soldiers, outnumbered by their foes were offered protection by the police but for which they could have been lynched. We recall the Maj Maxwell Mahama incident.
The situation could have been bloody but for the finesse used by the police and the intervention of some respected community personalities. Even then the incident was eventful as it left behind damaged and destroyed state properties.
Information reaching us suggests that those who should have been apprehended and questioned over their roles in the lawlessness are outside the jurisdiction.
It is disturbing that such a national security blunder is not attracting the attention commensurate with its magnitude. We have taken notice of an invitation extended to the MP for the jurisdiction who is reported to have been very prominent in the lawlessness.
Most observers are not confident that the MP and others related to the mess would be made to face the law.
A superficial treatment is what would follow and the usual media mention triggered as a means of throwing dust into the eyes of the public.
Events leading to the besieging of the police station sent scary signals to those who watch developments under this government especially as they relate to the so-called war against illegal mining.
When a Colonel leading the operation is told in unequivocal language to ‘let my people go’ by a higher authority then there is something seriously wrong with our governance.
The NAIMOS is a Presidential creation and so nobody, not even the MP, has the audacity to give counter orders to the team or squad after its action in seizing gadgets used in illegal mining as it unfolded during the fateful occurrence at the Hwidiem Police Station.
Erastus Asare Donkoh’s report on the occurrence points at a point where Collins Dauda, MP for Asutifi South ordered the soldiers to stop their action through a phone call from South Africa where he is currently on a national assignment and to release the seized items. For how long shall we tolerate this mess in our jurisdiction?
As for soldiers who think they can defy the orders of the local champions such as the MPs, constituency party chairman and others let them have a rethink when they are deployed for such operations.
