President Akuffo Addo advises Ghanaian lawyers not to be lenient with illegal miners so it serves as lessons to others.
President Akuffo Addo has warned Ghanaian Lawyers against giving out light sentences to illegal miners. According to him rigid sentences should be handed out to serve as a lesson to others. He made this statement during the swearing in of the new judges which was held at Jubilee House.
President Akuffo Addo has warned Ghanaian Judges to hand out rigid punishment to illegal miners.
kyfilla.com monitored this report by rainbowradioonline.com, he said some sentences given to them are too flexible, and therefore does not aid in the purpose to be achieved. During the swearing in of four new Judges at the Jubilee House on Wednesday the 3rd of October, 2018 he said the suspects are to be punished to serve as lesson to others from indulging themselves in such acts.
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He stated that ”it continues to be a source of worry, that persons caught in the act of destroying our environment and polluting our domestic water bodies, that is the inheritance of our future leaders because of the phenomenon of illegal mining, popularly referred to as ‘galamsey’; get away with flexible sentences. As it is at certain places, the discretion must be exercised for the upper end; for the maximum.
The concept of deterrence must be an important art of sentencing policy, especially in areas of great social concern such as the fight against ‘galamsey’ and vigilantism”, he stressed
President Akuffo Addo also used the event as a platform to warn the judges to take into consideration the highest form of punishment whenever they are to exercise their discretion in handling sentence to suspects in any of such crimes.
The four Justices who have been sworn in are;
Justice Marful- Sau
Justice Agnes Dordzie
Justice Nene A.O Amegatcher and an academic,
Justice Prof. Nii Ashiekotey
They were appointed in July 2018 to replace some of the long serving justice who have retired from the bench.
