Five Burkina Faso nationals have each been sentenced to 20 years in prison for their involvement in illegal mining activities in the Wa West district, Upper West region.
Their arrest occurred on March 23 at an illegal mining site in Maase, within the Wa West District, following a tip-off received by patrolling police officers.
Despite attempting to flee upon encountering law enforcement, the miners were swiftly apprehended.
In their caution statement, the accused confessed to mining without a license, citing adverse environmental conditions, particularly drought, in Burkina Faso as their reason for migrating to Ghana.
The court convicted the five individuals on two counts: conspiracy to commit a crime (mining without a license) and engaging in mining without a license as non-Ghanaian nationals.
Principal State Attorney Saeed Abdul Shakur, in an interview, stated that the accused were caught red-handed and were unable to refute their involvement in the illegal mining activities.
“The police conducted a swoop at the Black Volta close to Jamboso and arrested 5 persons, all of them were Burkinabé nationals. And they were actually mining close to the bank of the river, somewhere even mining inside the river. They were arrested and arraigned before the circuit court, and remanded in the presence of police custody.
“In the Mining Act, the minimum you can give any foreigner doing illegal mining in Ghana is 20 years. They were caught in the act; they were inside the pit when they were arrested. Eventually, they couldn’t do anything,” he added, a citinewsroom.com report said.