Lands Ministry vows prosecutions for galamsey suspects as NAIMOS arrests 13 at Osino

Pinned summary · as of 06:12

Government officials restated their determination to punish illegal mining after a fresh round of arrests in the Eastern Region. A ministry spokesperson said cases from the crackdown now sit with the Attorney General, while the Ashanti Regional Minister used a Kumasi climate forum to call for enforcement that does not let up.

What we know

• On Friday, 25 September 2026, thirteen people suspected of illegal mining were picked up at Osino (Fanteakwa South District, Eastern Region) by NAIMOS, the anti-illegal mining secretariat.
• Mr Paa Kwasi Schandof, who speaks for the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry, said the Attorney General's Office is handling the prosecutions and will announce progress as the legal process unfolds.
• The ministry promised that the law would reach everyone involved in galamsey, whatever their status. "The law will take its full course, irrespective of anybody who has been involved," Mr Schandof said.
• Dr Frank Amoakohene, the Ashanti Regional Minister, addressed the Climate Talks in Kumasi, where he pressed for firm enforcement against illegal mining and for wider cooperation to protect land and water.
• Dr Amoakohene said the government's response to galamsey combines reforms to regulation, law enforcement, land reclamation and alternative sources of income for people who depend on mining.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  The Vaultz News reported that dockets arising from the anti-galamsey sweeps have already been handed to the Attorney General for prosecution and that state prosecutors are working towards convictions; The Ghana Report only quoted the spokesperson as saying the cases were with that office.
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  The Vaultz News said NAIMOS will keep up its operations in affected regions, using live intelligence to break up illegal camps, seize heavy machinery and hold operators without licences. This is the newspaper's own account and no other report repeats it.
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  Citi Newsroom reported that Paa Kwesi Schandorf, a media relations officer at the Lands Ministry, told Channel One TV on Monday, 28 September that the fight against galamsey should not become a party-political quarrel, and that both major parties had been drawn into it over the years.
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  Mr Schandorf also claimed that people linked to both main parties seemed to hold interests in mining activity in a community that recently raised a distress call about excavators; this claim has not been verified by other reports.
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  Onua Online reported that Dr Amoakohene named the Offin, Oda and Pra rivers among the water bodies hurt by illegal mining in the Ashanti Region, and listed five actions he said are needed, beginning with sustained enforcement across the whole chain of players.
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  According to the Vaultz News, Dr Amoakohene also urged firm action against structures put up along waterways and in swampy urban land, and said landowners and traditional leaders sometimes make land available to miners.
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  The Vaultz News further reported that Dr Amoakohene mentioned an idea floated by the Lands Minister, which is not yet law: ground so badly damaged that the state must restore it with public money would pass to government ownership.

Why it matters for Ghana

Galamsey has polluted rivers such as the Pra and Offin and damaged farmland and forests in mining regions, so its handling touches drinking water, cocoa and food farming, and public health in communities across the Ashanti, Eastern and Western regions. Whether the 13 arrests lead to court outcomes will show residents if the pledges reach beyond low-level operators. The Attorney General's Office, which now holds the cases, has yet to give details of any charges.