Galamsey fight cost Akufo-Addo some parliamentary seats – Former Deputy Minister reveals

The President, Nana Akufo-Addo commitment to clamp down illegal mining activities in the country is intact despite the outcome of the just-ended election results which nearly caused the defeat of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) especially in some mining areas across the country.

“He [Akufo-Addo] is not going to back down in this fight against unsafe mining practices because it cost him some seats or will make him unpopular to some people”, former Deputy Minister of Health, Bernard Okoe-Boye who spoke on the show ‘Newsfile’, monitored by MyNewsGh.com revealed

Speaking to a recent documentary where about thirty security operatives prevented the media and the Ministry of Environment’s Sustainability Taskforce from probing into illegal activities in Manso in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region, the former lawmaker hinted President Akufo-Addo is not relenting on the galamsey fight.

Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye, however, admitted that the President’s undoubted fight against galamsey cost him some parliamentary seats in the just-ended parliamentary elections but that the fight will be continued.

“This is a leader who believes strongly that we cannot allow our water bodies to be destroyed,” the former Member of Parliament (MP) for Ledzokuku Constituency told host, Samson Lardy Anyenini.

In his last State of the Nation Address recently, Nana Akufo-Addo said the phenomenon of illegal mining has dire effects on the country’s environment and water bodies but there is the need for non-partisan discussions on whether or not it should be permitted in the country.

“There is one subject…I believe we the people need to have an open conversation, and that is the phenomenon of galamsey. Should we allow or not allow galamsey,” President Akufo-Addo said.

“The illegal mining, that leads to the pollution of our water bodies and the devastation of our landscape. As I have said often, the almighty haven blessed us with considerable deposits of precious minerals there will always be mining in Ghana, indeed there has always been mining in Ghana. The problem we have is the use of modern technology that leads to the illegal mining menace posing serious dangers to our water bodies and the health of our environment. The pollution of our rivers and water bodies has been so acute on occasions that the Ghana Water Company Limited is unable to afford the distilling of water to make for safe drinking,” Nana Akufo-Addo noted.