The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has disclosed how lands minister, Samuel Abu Jinapor and Ashanti regional minister, Simon Osei Mensah tried to convince him to stick to the written contents of a speech made for him on galamsey.
According to him, the two ministers during a Regional Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining at KNUST in the Ashanti Region Wednesday, May 13, 2021, for the fear of him making comments that might affect some parties, tried to make sure he stuck to the written contents without sharing his personal opinions.
“Before I read my speech, I want to make mention of some two things. Yesterday, the Regional Minister and my son, Jinapor came to me to tell me to stick to the content of the speech and I told them I would. They perhaps thought I may say something else that may bring some trouble.
“In all sincerity, I told them that this galamsey issue we’ve been talking about, about 30% of us in this gathering would know the persons involved in galamsey. If we don’t speak the truth, we will keep deceiving ourselves, keep doing conferences for a long time,” he stated.
“Right here, one of the culprits involved in galamsey confessed that the Chiefs gave them the land. If you are a chief and you know you are giving out lands for galamsey, you should judge yourself and ask if you are doing the right thing. If you go to your village and you have given out that land for galamsey, what leadership example are you giving?. It’s wrong.
“Yesterday, they came and mentioned a lot of things which will probably stir up trouble if I should touch on them,” he added.
GhanaFeed.com