Some excavators went missing before Akufo-Addo took over power - Ekumfi MP

Member of Parliament for Ekumfi Constituency, Francis Kingsley Ato Codjoe has said the Akufo-Addo government cannot be held entirely responsible for the missing excavators as some of them went missing before Akufo-Addo took over power.

According to him, some excavators that were seized which include that of the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic party (NPP) Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) cannot be traced.

He asked the opposition party to give details of where they left Wontumi’s seized excavator during their regime.

Speaking on the floor of parliament after a statement on environmental degradation, Mr Codjoe said even though they haven’t achieved 100 percent success on fight against illegal mining, he, however, said Akufo-Addo must be praised for his achievement so far as people no longer die in ‘galamsey pit.’

“We had excavators missing before Akufo-Addo took over power, excavators that were seized under the NDC regime nobody has told us where those excavators are? Wontumi’s excavators were seized. Where are those excavators? More importantly, we were in this country when people were dying in galamsey pit?

No was no time anything was done but when Akufo-Addo set up this thing (Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining) we don’t hear of people dying in the galamsey pit again.

If for nothing at all the president has made sure that people are not dying in galamsey pit and we also have a testimonies that most of the water bodies as turned into normal. We have not achieved a hundred percent success but we have seen some of the water bodies begin to take proper shape.

Yes we are not happy about the destruction of our water bodies but let us praise the president because we put military people in charge," he said.

Member of Parliament for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini called on Akufo-Addo to demonstrate how much the fight against galamsey meant to him by accounting for equipment, weapons, gold, ammunitions vehicles which were seized by officers he commissioned to help end illegal mining.

He urged Akufo-Addo to penalize all who are proven to have been negligent or complicit in what may have gone wrong.

He called on parliament to “show interest in how funds approved for this exercise to the various institutions have truly been expended and the results attained for these are funds belong to the people whose interest in all humility represent.”