Former president John Dramani Mahama has pledged to return all seized mining concessions that were taken away from miners as part of government’s efforts to clamp down on ‘galamsey’ activities.
Speaking at the introduction of his running mate, Prof Naana Jane Opoku-Agyeman, to Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II at the Manhyia Palace on Wednesday, 26 August 2020, Mahama noted that it has become necessary to ensure every Ghanaian benefits from the national cake.
He stated, “the other time, I was speaking about small scale mining business. People paid money to acquire concessions legally from the Mineral Commission. When there was a change of government, those concessions, have been taken away from those people and given to those they want to give it to. We’re all one people in Ghana, everyone must benefit from our country, regardless of where you come from. Whether an Ashanti, Akyem, Ga, Ewe or Dagomba, we’re all Ghanaians.
“Lately it looks like we’re being selective, if you don’t belong to a certain party, they take away your concession. They have taken away people’s excavators to give to party members to work. The NDC is, however, saying that, we stand for social justice, so God willing when we come back into power, we’ll correct all these mistakes, we’ll retrieve the concessions and give them back to the rightful owners. We’ll make laws such that the country will benefit from the mining without destroying our lands and water bodies.”
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer further insisted that his government will put in measures to ensure no land is destroyed in the process of mining.
“We’ll introduce cooperative mining so that if these miners have cooperative groups, we’ll get mining safety officers to ensure that they’re doing things right to ensure that they don’t destroy the land in the process. Whatever, it is they make, they’ll save it, they’ll use the resources to ensure that the land is restored. We’ll plant trees on those lands and repay their monies. If they don’t do that, we’ll use their monies to pay for a bulldozer to clear the place and the people who help restore the land.
“There are lots of things we can do to ensure that the country benefits from mining. God blessed us with it so it is pointless using military men to chase these youth to kill them. So as for us, we’ll make new laws to ensure development in our country,” Mr Mahama stated.
Source: GhanaFeed.com