The Attorney-General, Godfred Dame, must be frustrated at the seeming cold feet by judges presiding over various galamsey related criminal trials going on in the courts.
Against the AG’s plea at the just held Annual Judges and Magistrates Conference for trial of galamsey-related criminal cases to be concluded within a month of the beginning of the legal year, General updates on some galamsey cases from Eastern and Western Regions, reveal a trail of long adjournments of cases with some even going into next year.
A careful analysis of the updates,(published at page 10) however showed that in most of the instances, prosecution counsel are always present in court, but defence counsel are absent, then the judges just adjourn the case to later dates.
For instance, in the case of the Rep Vrs. Issah Musah & Ors. which is at the Case Management stage, it was observed that the Accused persons were present but the Case Management could not be conducted because of the absence of the Counsel of the Accused, making the judge adjourn the case to 4, December, 2024. The Prosecution was, however, present.
More so, in the case of the Rep. Vrs Osman Baba, which is ongoing in Sekondi, in the Western Region, the continuation of the cross examination could not hold because though the Accused was present, the substantive Counsel for the Accused was absent, making the judge adjourn the case to 22 January 2025. The State Prosecutor was, however, present in court.
Recall that at the Judges and Magistrates Conference, the AG bemoaned the frequent complaint with justice delivery in this country ” is the slow pace at which the wheels of justice grind.”
“One category of cases whose speed of resolution by our courts I often lament is the trial of illegal mining cases. It is beyond argument that the form of illegal mining known as “galamsey” continues to wreak incalculable damage to our forest reserves and river bodies. A major setback to the struggle against galamsey is the rate of adjudication and punishment of offenders, he lamented.
The deterrence to galamsey sought to be achieved by the amendment to the Minerals and Mining Act in 2019, by requiring a punishment of a minimum of 15 years plus a heavy fine in the case of a Ghanaian, and a minimum of 20 years plus a hefty fine for a non-Ghanaian, he cautioned is not aided by the tardiness of our courts in completing galamsey cases.
Read excerpts of Lawyer Dame’s speech:
Convictions are secured but they come in trickles. Currently, over 140 cases of illegal mining involving over 850 accused persons are pending in courts in the Western, Eastern, Ashanti, Greater-Accra and Upper East Regions of Ghana. Some have been pending since 2020. This situation cannot be right. We are in urgent national crisis and all citizens and institutions with any form of role to play must be called to action.
Your ladyship, I therefore respectfully call on you to direct all judges sitting on galamsey cases to conclude the cases, hearing of which has started, within one month from the commencement of the legal year on 10th October, 2024. Reasonably, it can be done. Indeed, if most of these cases are completed within a month, it will go a long way in delivering justice for the heinous harm caused to the people by the devastating act. Politicians must also desist from encouraging galamsey through their rhetoric and actions. Those who preach amnesty for galamsey offenders must be rejected. There should be no place for the grant of amnesty for such crimes in our body politic as the lives of citizens and future of our nation are at risk.
