Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources has justified the government’s decision to burn excavators and other mining equipment that are being used for illegal mining in the country.

Jinapor said the decommissioning and/or de-mobilizing of equipment, including Changfang, were necessary measures being taken to protect and safeguard the country’s national environment for posterity in accordance with the sacred duty bestowed on the government by the framers of the Constitution under Article 36(9).

The minister was in Parliament to answer a question filed by Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwah, the Member of Parliament for North Tongu.

He said he has been advised by the attorney general that the action being taken by the government to burn excavators is within the remit of the law.

“I will respectfully but forcefully contend that there is ample legal justification for the conduct of the government in decommissioning or demobilization of excavators and Changfang illegally used to destroy our environment,” he said.

“Mr Speaker, Article 36(9) of the Constitution, which forms part of ‘The Directive Principles of State Policy, and which is supposed to guide all citizens, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary in the application and interpretation of the Constitution and any other law, as well as in taking and implementing policy decisions, states as follows: The State shall take appropriate measures needed to protect and safeguard the national environment for posterity and shall seek co-operation with other states and bodies for purposes of protecting the wider international environment for mankind,” he said.

He added, “The equipment being decommissioned and/or demobilized, however, are mostly found very deep in the forest, where they cannot be brought out without causing further damage to the forest; or found on water bodies which makes them near impossible to bring out, without destroying the watercourse. In addition to this, the illegal miners mostly remove the control boards from the machines, making them impossible to be moved.”