Akufo Addo must account for every soul lost in galamsey fight – Samson Ahi

Member of Parliament for Bodi, Hon. Sampson Ahi has charged Ghanaians to hold President Akufo Addo responsible for every killing of an illegal miner.

According to him, the president’s comments during his campaign tour is now biting him hard because he promised to let the illegal mining activity continue and has now launched a fight against the activity.

Then Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, while on his campaign trail ahead of the 2016 general elections, is reported by the Ghana News Agency as saying that the party would not halt illegal mining operations popularly known as “galamsey” in the Western Region when elected into power.

He, while addressed party faithful at the fore court of the Tarkwa community centre said considering the staggering number of Ghanaian’s who are involved in galamsey, the NPP would rather regularise the operations of illegal miners to enable them operate responsibly to earn a living.

The NPP in power would also reduce the rate at which farm lands are destroyed and water bodies polluted in the region.

But soon after President Akufo Addo was elected and sworn into power he began a relentless war against galamsey placing a 6-month ban on small-scale mining and a temporary halt on the issuance of new mining licences in order to allow the natural bodies, degraded by the activities of illegal miners to recover.

He has stated clearly that he was willing to incur the wrath of potential voters and put his Presidency on the line by continuing the fight against galamsey.

Government earlier this month deployed a 400 strong Military/Police Taskfoce [Operation Vanguard] to some parts of the country to combat the galamsey menace. An illegal miner was shot and killed last week in the Ashanti Region after a team of illegal miners allegedly clashed with the taskforce.

But speaking on Agoo TV and to Kasapa FM, Hon. Sampson Ahi stated that several youth were encouraged by Nana Akufo Addo’s campaign talk and as a result went for loans to secure equipment to venture into the illegal activity.

“Nana Akufo Addo must be held responsible for the death of anyone who dies in relation to galamsey. You motivate them into galamsey with your campaign talk and when you get power, you turn round and use armed soldiers and police to drive them away from where they get their livelihood. In the process if someone is been killed, who should we hold responsible for such death. The President must be blamed for the needless deaths, he caused it.”