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Member of Parliament of the Juaboso Constituency in the Western Region, Hon. Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, has described President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s fight against the galamsey menace as a mirage.

According to him, the illegal mining [galamsey] which the President claimed to have stopped in the country is false as the situation became worse after the President announced the ban and setting up of the Inter-ministerial Committee against illegal mining.

“Before God and man, I am telling you the gospel truth that galamsey never stopped in this country as President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo said. The galamsey menace never dropped in spite of the noise that the Akufo-Addo government made about the fight against galamsey. It is only those who don’t know the system that will believe that the galamsey fight was successful as the NPP Government stated," he asserted.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Morning Show, Hon. Mintah Akandoh alleged that the members of the ruling New Patriotic Party decided to engage in the galamsey business when they took over power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC).  

“ . . but when they got into the galamsey business, the field was already occupied and the legitimate concessioners prevented them from doing galamsey in their concessions. Those days, the galamsey business was done by the local boys and the local boys connived with the Chinese people to engage in the business and so the government took a decision to put the NPP people in the field to do the galamsey and the decision was to ask all operators in the small scale miners, whether with license or not to stop mining,” he alleged.

He further claimed the NPP people are neck-deep in the galamsey business even though there is a body to ensure only genuine people are in business in the mining sector.

The NDC MP alluded to a recent comment by the Local Government Minister that some DCEs in the Akufo-Addo government are involved in the galamsey business.

“And so, if you go to some of the mining sites and concessions, some of the DCEs are directly involved in galamsey. The President laid the pipes well to prevent people who have the grounds in order to make his own people have direct access to galamsey to sponsor their political party and this is the gospel truth,” Hon Mintah Akandoh added.