Stop trivializing the crusade against galamsey in the country - Amoah

Member of Parliament for the Nhyiaeso, Dr. Stephen Amoah, has criticized the opposition National Democratic Congress(NDC) for trivializing the means government is using to combat the canker of illegal small-scale mining(galamsey) in the country.

He said reducing the crusade against galamsey to trivial debates by the opposition party members shrouds the fight in doubt which will end up defeating the purpose of the fight against illegal small-scale mining.

Dr. Amoah made this pronouncement in an interview with Berla Mundi on the New Day show on TV3, Friday, May 28.

He was reacting to the allegation made by Mr. Abraham Amaliba of the NDC that President Akufo-Addo’s fight against galamsey is based on selective justice. And that the only reason Kate Gyamfua, the National Women’s Organizer of the ruling NPP was burnt is that she criticized the Road and Highway Minister Kwasi Amoako-Atta for only fixing roads in his constituency to the neglect of others in the Eastern Region.

“I am not saying that bigwigs are not part, I’m not a legal practitioner, I’m a finance person, my brother(Amaliba) is a lawyer but look at the way he is analyzing this misconception and deception that Kate Gyamfua has issue with the Road Minister. Is the Road minister in charge of mines or whatever? Is he the President? Let’s take things seriously because these are the allegations people make and I also make some and you say: oh Stika take it easy because you can’t come and sit here and make arbitrary statements” he charged.

Dr. Amoah went on to say that “once you do that you also force someone to also make wild statements against you and your government. How can you trivialize this serious matter, with so much importance that we want to attach to this issue to this misconception and fake news that the woman has a problem with the Road Minister? So the Road Minister by implication directed that her company’s excavators should be burnt? Can we even allow this statement to go on by a lawyer? How can you even link the Road Minister to this? How can we find solutions to this?

“How can we find solutions to these things? The fact of the matter is that we all as a people, the citizenry, want to attain a common goal. We want to define a point of convergence and make sure that we stop this barbaric behaviour of some Ghanaians who are into this business. Let me tell you, now it’s even very difficult to draw a distinction between small-scale mining and galamsey, some of them are genuine. But I can tell you what some of them say is not what they do, this is the problem we have in our country. They are so dishonest, I’m not saying all of them, to the extent that we cannot move this country forward, those who are trying to stop it, to me some are dishonest”.

“And it’s true they may go there and do selective justice, it’s possible. Those who are crying, of them, will cry but they know they are doing the wrong thing, they don’t care about what is happening to us. So me, my plea to the people of this country is that, I am begging everyone, let’s be honest a little. Not until all of us, including those in the bush, accept and acknowledge that very soon we won’t have water to drink because of galamsey. So we are begging ourselves to stop, when we do politics with it, maybe somebody who is out of frustration managing it is making a mistake, yes it’s possible.

“I mean using lawlessness to fight lawlessness, you can give all the descriptions. And it is also a fact that NDC people are involved, in fact, I think NPP people are more involved than NDC people because we are in power. We have the DCEs, we have the power to control, some chiefs are involved so this has become a national issue that we should stop playing games with because they are killing us, I think one life is worth more than one excavator. And I think that is what the President thinks: that, I will rather protect the lives of Ghanaians than to protect excavators” he charged.