The largest opposition party, NDC has ridiculed the relevance of President Akufo Addo’s engagement with MMDCEs and Traditional leaders over the galamsey crisis.
President Akufo Addo while addressing a gathering of Traditional authorities and MMDCEs Wednesday called for the depoliticization of illegal mining in order to effectively tackle the menace.
But the NDC has cast doubt on the sincerity of the president’s appeal.
Addressing a Press Conference in Accra, the National Communications Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi said the ongoing anti-galamsey campaign is a scam claiming the galamsey fight being spearheaded by the Akufo Addo-led government is just a ploy to kick out non-NPP members from small-scale mining.
“President Akufo-Addo’s engagement with chiefs and MMDCEs in Kumasi yesterday provided yet another opportunity for him to engage in his usual flowery speeches which cannot win the war against galamsey. While urging the chiefs to help depoliticise the fight against “galamsey”, the President is reported to have told his MMDCEs that fighting galamsey will convince Ghanaians to help the New Patriotic Party (NPP) ‘break the eight’.
“This has been the true nature of President Akufo-Addo who says one thing and does the exact opposite. He promised to protect our environment but turned around to strengthen “galamsey” and supervise the most devastating degradation of our environment. Ladies and gentlemen, how can the man, President Akufo-Addo who stood on a political campaign platform in 2016 in Obuasi and promised to promote illegal mining when elected, lecture us on the need to depoliticize the fight against illegal mining? Sammy Gyamfi questioned.
The National Communications Officer also wondered why Akufo-Addo has not cracked the whip on Chairman Wontumi, alleged to be one of the biggest and leading kingpins of galamsey.
“Chairman Wontumi is one of the biggest and leading galamsey kingpins in this AkufoAddo/Bawumia government, whose galamsey footprints have left vast devastation in various forest reserves in Ashanti, Eastern, Western and Western North Regions among others.
“Emboldened by the nonchalance and lukewarm posturing of the President, NPP bandits and thugs who now work for Chairman Wontumi had the effrontery to engage in an open armed combat with the anti-Galamsey task force of the Okyehene at Asaman Tamfoe in the Eastern Region two weeks ago. This is how brazen Wontumi has become in his indiscriminate “galamsey” activities and destruction of the environment under the watch of President Akufo-Addo and Vice President, Alhaji Bawumia,” Sammy Gyamfi said.
According to the NDC, the President’s call to action on the illegal mining menace remains mere rhetoric if it is not backed by the appropriate action such as going after his offending appointees.
