Galamsey: What’s your alternative – NPP asks Mahama

The ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) has dared the flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Mahama to publicly state how differently he will fight the menace of illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

The Communications Director of the NPP, Yaw Buaben Asamoah, at a press briefing, lashed out at the former president for remaining silent on very critical national issues but find his voice on the compilation of a new voters’ register and elections.

He condemned the politicization of the fight against illegal mining, adding that it must rather be a multi-stakeholder discussion.

Hon. Buabeng Asamoah who’s also the MP for Adentan, emphasized that the Akufo Addo administration must be lauded for its efforts in fighting galamsey which has yielded some positive results.

He urged all Ghanaians including the NDC to join the fight against galamsey.

“We are yet to hear candidate Mahama on the galamsey fight, what exactly is the NDC going to do about the galamsey, we don’t know, we don’t know…” Mr Buaben Asamoah said.

The opposition NDC last week described the national campaign against illegal mining popularly known as ‘galamsey’ as coy to enrich members of the ruling party.

Addressing a news conference in Accra, National Communications Officer of the party Sammy Gyamfi said the recent discoveries of rot in the galamsey fight is a confirmation of the NDC’s suspicion over the years.

“In fact, this latest scandal is only a vindication of our long-held position that President Akufo-Addo’s so-called fight against ‘galamsey’ is ruse calculated to expropriate the illicit ‘galamsey’ trade for NPP government officials. It is now clear that there was no fight, it was a sham, it was all a ploy, it was all 419 for top government officials to take over the ‘galamsey’ business.

“This ‘galamsey’ scandal is a result of a grand scheme set up by the President himself to finance the NPP party. This is the reason why he populated the committees with top NPP officials like Ekwow Ewusu, Charles Bissue among others,” he said.