‘Chief wants government to protect Kwapia lands from Chinese illegal miners’ 9 May 2022

The chief of Kwapia in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti region, Nana Gyamera Kwabena Yiakwah II, has appealed to the minister of Lands and Natural Resources to sustain the fight against illegal mining because the menace was far from over. He alleged that the increasing rate of galamsey in the full glare of those charged to fight it was scary and the ramifications could be dire. Nana Yiakwah told a press conference at Obuasi on Saturday that the foreign invasion, especially by Chinese nationals in the illegal business was still on the ascendency and it was time for government to crack the whip.

…According to him, the illegal activities of the four have led to the destruction of a 40-acre land meant for educational purposes. The Kumasi High Court last week cited the four Chinese - Shi Li Wen, Huang Shen Jun, Li De Hao and Lan Hai Song, and the Commander of the Ghana Immigration Service, Charles Yaw Bediako, for contempt while a substantive case before the court regarding illegal entry into the country and involvement in illegal mining by the Chinese nationals were still pending. The four were said to have been released from the GIS facility without any court order.

…Nana Gyamera Yiakwah is calling on government to help in ensuring that the culprits compensated the community and ensured that the land was properly reclaimed. He said with the destruction of the land, the future of the children in the community to pursue their educational careers could be truncated. He wondered how the Chinese nationals came to possess ECOWAS or Ghana cards when they were not Ghanaian nationals. "This can only be made possible with the assistance of some officials of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS)," he suggested.