Deputy Director of Communications of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah, has accused former President, John Mahama, for worsening illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey under his administration.
He revealed that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) should be the last political party to complain about the ‘galamsey’ menace. He indicated that the NDC did little about the canker when it was in power.
Contained in a press statement issued on Friday, October 7, 2022, Mr Owusu Bempah stated that the NDC’s “track record in the fight against the galamsey’menace is horrible”.
“We are talking about a party that shamelessly launched the Youth in Small Scale Mining programme in the Eastern Region, which apparently opened the floodgates for ‘galamsey’. Of course, the ‘galamsey’ situation got so bad under Mahama in 2015, such that he had to hang his shame on the people of Kyebi, tagging the place as the headquarters of ‘galamsey’ in the country.”
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah
Mr Bempah explained that the NDC is adding its voice to the ongoing conversation around the menace to score political points. With this, Mr Owusu Bempah requested Ghanaians to ignore them.
The NPP’s deputy Communications director equally accused the NDC of enabling notorious ‘galamsey’ kingpin, Aisha Huang, to thrive in Ghana. He highlighted that the erstwhile Mahama government issued an “infinite resident permit to Aisha Huang”.
“Precisely on 28th March 2015, Aisha Huang was given an indefinite resident permit to live here in perpetuity and to engage in her illegal activities. This happened under the Mahama administration. Meanwhile, she was unsuccessful in getting the permit during the President Kufour era.”
Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah
NDC criticizes NPP over failure to halt galamsey
Mr Owusu Bempah underscored that “any dastardly attempt” by the NDC to rationalize the political economy of galamsey must be “roundedly” condemned. He indicated that it is beyond dispute that under John Mahama-led government, the national record of the “deleterious impact of galamsey left a lot to be desired”, as it was simply unprecedented.
It will be recalled that the NDC, on October 6, 2022, faulted President Akufo-Addo of faking his efforts to combat illegal mining in the country. Addressing a press conference, the party’s communications officer, Sammy Gyamfi, stated that the President’s fight against ‘galamsey’ is a “complete 419 scam”.
The party describes the measures and strategies put in place by government to fight galamsey as a clear deception.
This, according to him, is because “the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia/NPP government has not exhibited any genuine commitment to the fight against ‘galamsey’. And that their so-called fight against ‘galamsey’ is nothing but a scam”.
Mr Gyamfi alleged that some members of the NPP and government are behind galamsey in the country. He further slammed the President and the Minister of Lands and Natural Resource, Samuel Abu Jinapor, over the galamsey menace and accused them of “shifting the blame to the chieftaincy institution”.
Subsequently, Mr Gyamfi encouraged the government to demonstrate political will in its fight against the menace by prosecuting perpetrators irrespective of their party affiliations.
