Conflicting official figures on arrests made under Ghana’s anti-galamsey campaign have raised questions about transparency and data coordination within the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), after two separate spokespersons cited numbers that differ by a factor of eight within days of each other.
At a media briefing in Accra on Wednesday, March 25, NAIMOS Director of Operations Col. Dominic Buah told editors that the secretariat had made 237 arrests across 21 designated operational zones since becoming fully operational, with the majority of those detained being foreign nationals including Chinese citizens. He also said NAIMOS had destroyed nearly 3,000 changfan machines and seized 94 excavators, measuring the overall effort through what he called an internal strike rate of 87.7 percent.
Yet five days earlier, a different picture had emerged. On March 20, NAIMOS and Ministry of Lands spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf told Channel One TV that more than 1,900 suspected illegal miners had been arrested across the country’s major galamsey hotspots. The two figures were not reconciled, and no official clarification was offered to explain whether they cover different timeframes, different categories of detention, or separate datasets altogether.
Col. Buah said NAIMOS operations span seven illegal mining-prone regions structured into 21 zones, drawing personnel from the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Police Service, National Intelligence Bureau, Immigration Service and the Narcotics Control Commission.
He also disclosed that NAIMOS has confiscated at least 59 weapons from illegal miners and described the development as a major national security threat, noting that one of his soldiers was shot during an operation, with the bullet striking the officer’s tie. Col. Buah warned illegal miners bluntly against armed resistance, saying NAIMOS operatives were better trained and would respond with full force if threatened.
On the financial side, the spokesperson acknowledged that funding constraints have affected the secretariat’s ability to sustain operations. Col. Buah confirmed in a separate interview that shortages of patrol vehicles, lowbed trucks and drones have not stopped the task force but have created operational limitations.
On land restoration, Col. Buah said reclamation efforts are underway, citing Manso Adubia in the Ashanti Region where more than 800 acres of degraded land have been restored. He added that NAIMOS is collaborating with the Ghana Integrated Iron and Steel Development Corporation (GIISDEC) to clear scrap metal from polluted waterways, beginning with the Ankobra River.
The contrasting arrest figures arrive at a sensitive moment. Ghana’s water bodies remain heavily polluted, enforcement has repeatedly faced violent pushback, and the credibility of the crackdown depends in part on the reliability of the data used to measure it. Until the numbers are explained and reconciled, the discrepancy risks undermining public confidence in the campaign’s reported progress.
