Galamsey: Ablakwa only seeking to score political points - Kwamena Duncan

Former Central Regional Minister, Kwamena Duncan, has scolded the Member of Parliament(MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa for casting doubts over the government's efforts to end galamsey.

A joint military team of the Ghana Armed Forces, Ghana Air Force and Ghana Navy has been deployed to remove illegal miners.

To stop the miners, the task force has embarked on an operation dubbed "Operation Halt" where equipment used in galamsey are burned.

The operation is aimed at restoring the country's water bodies and forest reserves which have been destroyed by the activities of the illegal miners.

Hundreds of changfang machines and excavators have been destroyed by the task force.

Speaking to the government's approach, Hon. Ablakwa disclosed, in an interview with broadcaster Kwami Sefa Kayi, that there are some big people behind illegal mining, hence the government's efforts to fight galamsey will come to naught unless the big people are identified and arrested.

''How come not even one architect behind this galamsey operation has been arrested? To start a galamsey operation, you need millions of Ghana cedis and so the real perpetrators are not those small boys or the youth who are risking their lives.

"Instead of arresting these guys, we should make them an offer for them to lead us to the real kingpins; if we follow the chain, it will lead us to the barons. Unless we get the real perpetrators, we will always come back to square one," he said.

The MP also described the President’s fight as a fiasco.

“I don’t recall anywhere in history where there has been a fiasco after all the goodwill, after all the resources a Presidential declaration, something that you put your Presidency on the line.

“After 4 years, you are now calling for a conversation? I was really disappointed listening to the President in his last State of the Nation Address,” he added.

Dissecting Hon. Okudzeto Ablakwa's statements during Peace FM's ''Kokrokoo'', Kwamena Duncan held that the MP is only seeking to score political points with the galamsey issue.

Kwamena Duncan expounded that the MP didn't make his remarks in the interest of the nation but rather like other political opponents of the government, his aim is to enjoy a political ride.

He likened Hon. Ablakwa's comments to a ''trojan horse''.

"This is a politician. This man is a politician who has been doing politics, in the last if you may, 16/20 years of his adult life. This is what he has been doing. Are you saying what he wrote is a religion?"

He stressed, "I mean in an NPP administration, Okudzeto Ablakwa's suggestion or idea will be always be a trojan horse."