Private legal practitioner and law lecturer Clara Beeri Kasser-Tee has called for a depoliticised approach to addressing the menace of illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey, insisting that the solution lies in building strong state institutions rather than resorting to emergency declarations.
“It doesn’t matter whether the NDC is in power or the NPP is in power.
“We need a state institution that is capacitated to understand the problem from all angles and to continuously deal with it, so that we are in a better position to solve the problem in the long term,” she said on Newsfile on JoyNews on Saturday.
Kasser-Tee distanced herself from claims that she had called on either the current or former presidents to declare a state of emergency in the fight against galamsey.
“Right from the Nana Addo days, I never said anywhere that President Nana Akufo-Addo should declare a state of emergency.
“I never said that, it is insinuated that I said that. And I have never told President Mahama also to declare a state of emergency,” she clarified.
She also cautioned against the potential abuse of rights that comes with such declarations.
“I understand the potentials for human rights when states of emergency are declared. I am not persuaded that that is going to necessarily solve the problem from the evidence that I have seen,” Kasser-Tee argued.
