Akufo-Addo is committed to root out galamsay in Ghana – NPP

A Deputy Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ernest Owusu-Bempah has assured the people of Ghana that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is highly committed to bring to an end the issue of illegal small scale mining (galamsey).

He said the NPP as a party is poised to support the President to root out this menace.

In a statement ahead of a planned meeting between Mr Akufo-Addo and Municipal and District Chief Executives and also National House of Chiefs at Manhyia in Kumasi on Wednesday October 5, Mr Owusu-Bempah appealed to all Ghanaians to support the President to deal with this situation.

“We the NPP will support the president to deal with this menace,” portions of his statement said on Tuesday October.

Unlike the NPP administration, he further stated, the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) failed to tackle the menace when they were in office.

“The NDC and John Mahama failed to to fight galamsey,” he said.

The galamsey practice has been destroying water bodies and the environment in general by galamsey activities, a situation that has raised cincerns among stakeholders.

For instance, the Director of Research at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) Dr John Kwakye suggested to the government to ban all small scale mining activities for two years as part of the fight against galamsey.

“Looking at the rate galamsey is destroying our forests and water bodies, all small-scale mining should be banned for at least 2 years to allow sanity to be restored to the system,” Dr Kwakye tweeted.

The government earlier placed a ban on small scale min9ng as part of efforts to deal with the illegal ones among them.

But the ban was along the line lifted.

Pressure group, OccupyGhana has also a state of emergency declared over this issue.

A statement by the group said “Considering the gravity of the situation, we fully expect Parliament to agree with the government and provide that the state of emergency should remain for such period as Parliament may determine so that the government can get a grasp of the situation.”