Ghanaian private legal practitioner and a vocal campaigner against illegal mining (galamsey), Martin Kpebu, has revealed that he was abruptly fired from his job for taking on government in the fight against the menace.
According to the lawyer, the fight against galamsey is failing because government officials are just interested in protecting their jobs, hence, bigwigs and political actors associated with the ruling government being insulated from prosecution for their involvement in illegal mining.
“Why is that public officers like to protect their jobs too much? Do you think we as individual campaigners against galamsey do not suffer? We are also sacrificing,” he told Alfred Ocansey in an interview on TV3 monitored by Yawa News.
“Where I used to work some years ago, you see this same galamsey matter, the gov’t wanted to mine bauxite in Atewa forest. We sued the gov’t to prevent it from mining in Atewa forest. The people I was working for were not comfortable with me suing the government. So I went to work one morning and was called in on the matter. I was told to drop the case but I said no, and I was fired. I had to leave with the Atewa brief under my belt,” he recounted.
Martin Kpebu disclosed that because of his stance against galamey, he has been tagged as a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), a party he is not affiliated to in any way, causing him to lose numerous job opportunities.
“I tell you, there are many gov’t jobs people recommend me for, and once they see me they say this guy is an NDC guy. This is a price I am paying but I still keep coming,” he added.
To him, the fight against galamsey has never been sincere on the part of both government officials and institutions mandated to fight the menace, as everyone is afraid of losing their positions.
