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DVLA Registers 6,000 Excavators, Seizes 3,000 Unregistered Machines in Galamsey Crackdown
Chief Executive Officer of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA), Julius Neequaye Kotey, has disclosed that thousands of excavators used in illegal mining operations, popularly known as galamsey, were previously unregistered in the Authority’s system, making it nearly impossible to trace their owners.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Channel One TV’s Face to Face on Tuesday, August 19, Mr Kotey said investigations revealed that excavators seized during the government’s anti-galamsey operations had been operating without proper registration and number plates.
“If you buy a vehicle, before you use it, you must make sure you register the vehicle; it’s part of our law. We were like, how come the excavators were not registered? It’s deliberate because if they register, we will be able to trace the owners, and the police can arrest them. There were no number plates,” he explained.
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To address this loophole, the DVLA boss said a new policy was introduced, making it mandatory for all excavators to be registered directly at the ports before clearance.
“The ones at the ports, within two weeks, we registered over 1,000 excavators,” he said.
The Authority also rolled out a nationwide directive giving owners of existing excavators a two-week ultimatum to register their machines. This exercise led to more than 5,000 excavators being captured in the DVLA system.
Mr Kotey further revealed that despite the registration drive, thousands of unregistered excavators still remain in circulation. To date, about 3,000 have been seized and are currently being kept at the VALCO compound in Tema.
“We have seized about 3,000 excavators; they are there at the VALCO compound for parking,” he disclosed.
The DVLA boss stressed that the lack of registration had long given illegal miners an upper hand, as the anonymity of the machines shielded their operators from accountability. With the new system in place, authorities can now track ownership, enforce compliance, and support law enforcement in the broader fight against galamsey.
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