Ghanaians should not expect that the military and police joint task force enforcing the ban on illegal small scale mining will to sit and watch when the illegal miners' fire at them.

That's according to a member of the Convention Peoples Party and Vice Chair of Public Interest Accountability Committee [PIAC] Kwame Jantoa, who argues that the killing of an illegal miner by the joint military and police taskforce in the fight against galamsey was to be expected. 

Read A/R: REGSEC begins investigation into alleged shooting of miner by galamsey task force

Commenting on developments in the fight against galamsey on JoyFm's Newsfile, he stressed that with a mandate to defend themselves, troops of Operation Vanguard will not idly watch the illegal miners' who are in possession of arms to fire at them without firing back.

"No matter how the joint force tries to fire warning shots without firing at the people just to disperse them, the illegal miners' are firing at them which threatens their lives so they also have to fire back at them." He said.

As part of the ongoing effort by governemt to stop illegal mining in the country, a joint task force of military and police have been deployed to the most affected regions, Ashanti, Western and Central, to clamp down on the menace.

The task force during their operation in the Ashanti region clashed with some suspected illegal miners'  leading to the death of one Kwabena Agyemang. 

Read also: Operation vanguard dismisses claims of another killing

Mr Jantoa urged government to present alternative sources of livelihood to the illegal miners' along side efforts to stop their activities because without that it will be difficult to end this illegal mining problem.