Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Lands Committee, Alhassan Suhuyini has condemned President Akufo Addo's justification of burning of excavators by military operatives in government’s fight against illegal mining.

President Akufo-Addo on Wednesday stated that “the equipment, which is being used for an illegal or criminal purpose, cannot confer on the owner or any other person any rights whatsoever.”

For that reason, he advised aggrieved persons to proceed to the court of law for redress.

His comment, according to Alhassan Suhuyini, is nothing to write home about as it suggests mob justice as the ideal way to rid the country of “galamsey” operations.

“To suggest that no rights could accrue to anybody engaged in an illegal enterprise seemed like the pronouncement of judgement. Even before people go to court, and you know how our system works, especially the perceptions around the system, you will be careful as a President, asking people to go to court and not stopping there, but just giving a final judgement. For me, it actually seemed like an endorsement of mob justice," he said

Speaking to JoyNews’ Kwesi Parker-Wilson, the Tamale North MP acknowledged that aggrieved persons seeking redress from the court is the best way to go, however, the President passing judgement “was a bit disturbing.”

“I said the President’s comment seems an endorsement for mob justice because it sounded as if to say that if one is caught in the act of stealing, anything else done to that person like slapping, kicking and beating is alright. That is perhaps the kind of mindset to which the President is approaching this fight against galamsey,” he explained

According to him, the country is being governed under a democratic system, hence the President cannot take a unanimous decision that goes against the very constitution that swore him in as President.

He further explained that the tactics employed by the incumbent in its galamsey fight were employed in the past and proved to be unsuccessful. "They landed the country in a number of judgement debts," he said.

“What is currently happening, the Rambo-style is not the law. That is the jungle operation and you will expect a President with a level of the knowledge of the law to know better. We are not in a state of emergency. The President has not declared a state of emergency and so he cannot be operating as if he is a law unto all of us. Parliament passed the law, the law stipulates what should be done.

“If he has a problem with the law based on whatever experience he has had, based on how his own people have not been able to shun corruption and live above reproach, which as a result led to the missing excavators in the past and he can’t trust them with the excavators again and he wants a better approach, there is a process to follow.

“He can’t just decide that he can change the law to suit him as President and his government,” he noted.

He said Act 995 stipulates what should be done to equipment and machinery used in illegal mining.

For him, a call for a better alternative to help preserve the environment and water bodies has been interpreted wrongly by the President.

“Nobody is against this fight and nobody who calling for a better approach to winning the fight, is anti this fight. The President must get this clear," he stressed.

“The calls for a better approach is informed by our past and the fact that we have embarked on burning of these excavators before and the fact that such acts led to further burdens of judgement debts of the state in some cases.”

This he says, accessing documents from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) to penalize culprits found mining in water bodies and forest reserves would be the best alternative to address its challenge.

"Can’t you go to the DVLA, all the other agencies that are responsible for registering these machines to find out the owners? Can’t you begin the prosecution from there? Are you afraid that perhaps some of the owners are people you can’t prosecute?" he quizzed.

Mr Suhuyini has therefore encouraged the government to reassess steps it has put in place and consider recommendations before it, since current interventions portend harm for the country.

“I think the President must pipe down. He must not take criticisms that are aimed at improving this fight as anti stands against the fight.

“I have said the burning of these excavators also creates some level of pollution on the water bodies. When you go and destroy these changfans you leave the debris in the water bodies that is another form of pollution you are creating. So you don’t fight pollution with another form of pollution even if it is less pollution when you can use a better approach,” he advised.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Lands Committee says both Ministers for Lands and Natural Resources, and Defence would be engaged by the Committee to reach a common ground on the unlawful burning of excavators.

"Now that Parliament has resumed, we will seek audience again either on the floor at the Committee level with the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and the Minister for Defence to find out why they think this is the best approach. We do not think it is the best approach, there is evidence to show that in the past it didn’t work," he said.