Galamsey fight during Akufo-Addo's first term was a sham- Small scale miner

A member of the Small-Scale Miners Association, Mr. Benjamin Mensah says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government did not fight galamsey in its first term as it claimed.

According to him, in the process of stopping all mining activities, the government rather took over the job and gave it to its people to do the mining.

“In the beginning the government was saying it was fighting galamsey, but there wasn’t any fight against galamsey, they rather took over from the miners,” he said.

During the first term of the Akufo-Addo led government, it started the fight against illegal mining due to the way water bodies were being contaminated and how lands were being destroyed.

Through the process, over 100 excavators were seized to prevent the illegal miners from mining and to protect the water bodies.

Although the government stopped all mining activities, it later allowed some small scale miners to continue mining under regulations.

Recently, 200 soldiers were deployed by the Government to halt all illegal mining activities across the country and to protect the water bodies which have been soiled as a result of galamsey.

It was reported that through the operation, some excavators belonging to both galamseyers and Small-Scale Miners were burnt.

But speaking with Ekourba Gyasi on Atinka TV’s morning show, Ghana Nie, the Small Scale Miner said although the soldiers have been deployed to stop mining activities, the galamseyers were still at work because most of them are NPP Members.

“The water bodies which have been contaminated were caused by about 95 percent of NPP members who are doing the galamsey. They seized our excavators and shared it and sent them to the forest to do the galamsey,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said the illegal mining can only stop if the President directs his people to stop it.

“If the President directs the NPP members to stop the galamsey, the water bodies will be cleared,” he said.

He expressed worry over the burning of the excavators, saying that instead of burning the excavators, government can use them to desilt choked gutters across the country.