Are There Links Between Galamseyers and Elements In The Higher Echelons Of The Military?

No one in Ghana must be allowed to unfairly bismirch the good name of the Ghana Armed  Force's gallant soldiers and get away with it. Ever.

In light of that, when rumours start circulating about the military, which are negative in nature, as patriotic citzens who love Mother Ghana, should activist groups such as OccupyGhana, not publicly offer to investigate any such rumoured connexions, if any, between the powerful and super-wealthy criminal syndicates behind most of the illegal gold mining across Ghana, and elements amongst the country's military authorities, on behalf  of the good people of Ghana?

Knowing now the painful and tragic circumstances leading to Major Maxwell Adam Mahama's horrific murder - apparently resulting from a conspiracy amongst a number of local galamseyers - the plain truth is that for the sake of his family and the nation as a whole, the Ghanaian media and local activist groups across the nation ought to get to the bottom of those rumours.

Alas, the only way to exclude and dispel lingering doubts about  the existence of possible  links between some military officers and senior defence ministry officials secretly profiting  from illegal galamsey operations,  when such rumours start circulating, is to thoroughly  investigate all such allegations. Nothing else, including public warnings by the defence minister to DCEs will do.

Yes, in the main the vast majority of ordinary Ghanaians admire and respect their nation's  disciplined and well-trained  military.

However, no one in our democracy today should think that allegations of corruption in the military can be a state secret or sacred cow. It cannot be so  - not when funding the military is borne solely by hapless Ghanaian taxpayers: to whom those governing the Republic of Ghana must always be accountable if Ghanaian democracy is to survive and deepen its roots.

The point also needs to be made clearly that it behoves military officers to live lives above reproach at all material times in a nation in which high-level corruption keeps growing and increasingly endangering the long-term stability of the Republic of Ghana.

The question is: Was it not the minister for lands and natural resources himself, the brave Hon John Peter Amewu, who caught Russians and Ukrainians mining gold illegally under the protection of Ghanaian soldiers in broad daylight?

Who exactly was it in the system who ordered  those soldiers to go to that area and why was that done? Perchance, were they bribed for that purporse? And how long have soldiers been assigned that task?

That bold and thoroughly dishonest  Russians and Ukrainians  - whom we should not discount the possibility  might even be mafia-type gangsters in their home countries - could mine gold illegally using questionable documentation to cloak their illegal operations, speaks volumes about the failure of officialdom to protect the nationasl interest.

Is that egregious example of iklkegal mining by dubious foreign  not an indictment of all the regulatory bodies that supretend over the gold mining industry: the Water Resources Commission; the Minerals Commission; and the Environmental Protection Agency?

• And why exactly did the minister for defence, Hon Dominic  Nitiwul - whom it ought to be pointed out had never personally even then been to the area over which a recently sacked district chief Chief executive  had jurisdiction, and in which the late Major Maxwell Adam Mahama met his end - make that outrageous public statement on the airwaves of a number of FM radio stations demanding that the said DCE ought to  shut up if he "does not the know the facts" - he who then headed the district's security council?

Are there not Chinese nationals still mining gold illegally - when all that they reportedly have is only an exploration license from the Minerals Commission - as we speak?  Are they not infringing the Mining Act, I ask? Hmm, Ghana - eyeasem o. Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.

Surely, the deafening silence of the authorities on that particular issue disrespects the memory of the just posthumously promoted Major Maxwell Adam Mahama?

And does it not also  insult the intelligence of all members of the detachment of troops he led at the time of his tragic death, who are allegedly said to be in the area to protect those selfsame controversial Chinese said to be mining gold illegally in the forest reserve near Aminase - when the authorities refuse to shed light on the activities of those Chinese purportedly  mining gold illegally  in the Aminase forest reserve?

Surely, if there are no sacred cows in our democracy - in which ultimately there is civil control over the military - has the time not then -:-) come for Ghanaians to know whether or not there are any links between elements in the higher echelons of the military and the criminal syndicates behind most of the illegal gold mining across our homeland Ghana: who should be exposed and dealt with severely to serve as a deterrent to other rogue officers involved in such shameful abuses of their positions and ranks?

Post Script:

Naturally, as patriots who love Mother Ghana dearly, this blog hopes against hope that the rumours are just that - unsubstantiated rumours unfairly  maligning an innocent, loyal and dedicated officer corps. We rest our case.