Administrator of the Minerals Development Fund, Dr. Hanna Bisiw-Kotei says she remains resolute to sustain her fight against illegal mining, despite threats on her life.
She claims to have received threats on her life and that of her family due to her involvement in the galamsey fight.
“People go to the internet and pull my pictures and that of my husband, send them to my inbox with all kinds of messages,” she said.
The MDF Administrator was speaking to the media on the sidelines of a community engagement at Atatam in the Adansi Asokwa District of Ashanti Region.
“It is only a coward who threatens, if I want to slap you, I will not be warning you,” Dr. Bisiw-Kotei stated.
The Women’s Organiser of the NDC, after assuming her new role, has taken up a fight in the interest of mining communities.
Illegal mining has become a major concern of the Minerals Development Fund; hence the threats being received from beneficiaries of illegal mining.
“People engage in armed robbery and they die. They are sometimes arrested, when they are released, they continue even though they know it’s dangerous, they die for the cause,” said Dr. Bisiw-Kotei.
Though she rules out death in the fight, she insists going all out in the fight.
“If you threaten me for a good course and I sit back then I stop being a patriot. It is the motherland or death we win, till the last drop of blood,” she insisted.
Destruction done to Atatamu
Atatamu is a small community in the Adansi Asokwa District of the Ashanti Region.
Surrounded by forest cover, people in the community are mainly farmers and hunters.
For some years, illegal miners have taken over the community, destroying the vegetative cover and farms.
Many tracts of cocoa, plantain and other crops have been destroyed by the illegal mining activities. This has affected livelihoods of families.
A local leader of Atatamu, Nana Kofi Sarfo Kantanka revealed the perpetrators of the illegality, who mostly come from other areas, sometimes assault the community for resisting the illegality.
“We went to them to complain about the harm being done. With guns and machete, they came to threaten and beat some of the people. We have since refrained from talking about their activities,” he said.
An operation to stop the devastation after the community engagement led to the arrest of six illegal miners, including four Chinese.
The Chinese were tracked to their base where they had stocked some weapons and ammunitions.
About fifteen excavators were ceased from the illegal mining sites.
Upon investigations, it was revealed that the Chinese had freshly lowered a cocoa farm in efforts to expand their illegal activities.
Further community engagement revealed the only public basic school in the area is gradually being taken over by illegal mining.
The school is now sandwiched between several mining sites.
They are pleading with the government to sustain the fight against the menace in the area.