The flagbearer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), John Dramani Mahama has expressed his party’s commitment in granting amnesty to jailed illegal small scale mining operators should he win the December elections.
According to him, the incumbent government’s bid to fighting galamsey led to the arrest and jailing of these Ghanaians.
Speaking at Odum Banso in the Mpohor Constituency in the Western Region, John Mahama further quipped why a Chinese national was freed while Ghanaians are imprisoned for the same mining offence.
“It’s sad. The government said it was fighting galamsey, and they arrested, prosecuted, and jailed Ghanaians who were engaged in that activity but left the Chinese woman [Aisha Huang].
“Today, they are still in prison. That Chinese galamsey queen was arrested but left to go free. She was never prosecuted but our people are in jail suffering. When we come, we shall grant all those arrested and jailed some amnesty. They will come back to their homes and work. I believe that they have suffered enough, shown remorse for whatever wrong they committed. We will institute measures to check the operations of small scale mining”.
Pledging to also fix the roads in the Mpohor community, he noted that, his party, known for their development projects will rectify the issue.
“I have personally traveled on the Mpohor road and I can also testify that the road has seriously deteriorated. Mpohor is a very popular community in Ghana and so does not merit such a poor road at all. Since it is a known fact that NDC is a developer-oriented party, when the NDC is elected, we will definitely fix your road to reduce your sufferings. So just be patient and vote for the parliamentary candidate here and me on 7th December.”
Meanwhile, the former president has revealed his plan of providing sustainable jobs for the youth through small-scale mining.
Addressing a durbar of small-scale miners at Wassa Japa in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region, he highlighted the state of joblessness among small-scale miners is as a result of the incumbent government’s decision to assign a few party members to undertake mining activities.
“Respect and honour evades a man who stays at home not because he is lazy, but because there are no jobs, all the time, you have to look forward to family and friends to cater for your needs, there is no dignity in that”.
Mr. Mahama further noted that the bad governance of President Akufo-Addo led administration has made people within mining communities bereft of livelihood.
“A well planned and implemented small scale mining practice is capable of creating jobs for all the youths. The bad governance of the NPP has brought about hunger because they have canvased all practices of galamsey and given it to a few persons in the party with a greater number of the mining population sidelined”.
John Dramani Mahama, intimated that his party will introduce small-scale cooperative mining processes.
In assuaging the wrong done by the NPP government, he intimated that his party, would encourage prospective small-scale miners to form identifiable groups in order to streamline and boost their operations.
This is to regularize properly small-scale mining activities that conform strictly to environmental and safety laws, he added.
