Galamsey: Exhibit 900 seized excavators, 2,779 weapons – NDC to Akufo-Addo

The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress (NDC), is demanding that the Akufo-Addo-led administration make full public disclosure on all items and equipment seized by the Operation Vanguard taskforce while fighting illegal small-scale mining popularly known as galamsey.

The NDC argues that the public display and exhibition of the seized items will be in the spirit of transparency and accountability.

These demands were contained in a press statement read on behalf of the party by Mr Sammy Gyamfi, National Communication Officer on the banks of River Pra in Twifo Praso, a town located in the Twifo Ati Morkwa District of the Central Region on Sunday, 16 February 2020.

“The NDC further demands that the Akufo-Addo government, as a matter of urgency, should fully account for all items seized as listed at paragraph 801 of the 2020 Budget Statement presented to Parliament. We insist that a public exhibition of all 900 excavators, 2,779 weapons and ammunitions and the 4,045 other mining equipment confiscated must be held in the spirit of transparency and to the benefit of all Ghanaians,” Mr Gyamfi said.

He added that the NDC is “terrified at the prospect of all these weapons finding their way into the hands of hoodlums belonging to NPP vigilante groups in an election year.”

Mr Gyamfi further said the current state of affairs reflects the failure of Nana Akufo-Addo's so-called fight against galamsey and said the government’s fight against the menace was a “ruse to kick out legal small-scale miners and artisanal galamseyers and replace them with a new breed of marauding illegal miners belonging to the ruling New Patriotic Party and government.”