The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) after the latter described its effort in fighting illegal mining in the country as a scam.
The NPP Deputy Director of Communications, Ernest Kofi Owusu Bempah in a statement said the NDC’s conduct is “like the pot calling the kettle black because their track record in the galamsey menace is horrible.”
Mr. Owusu Bempah accused the NDC of enabling and festering galamsey when they had the opportunity to pull the plug.
“We are talking about a party that shamelessly launched the Youth in Small Scale Mining programme in the Eastern Region, which apparently opened the floodgate for galamsey.”
“Of course, the galamsey situation got so bad under Mahama in 2015, such that he had to hang his shame on the people of Kyebi, tagging the place as the headquarters of Galamsay in the country.”
He further accused the NDC of enabling galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang to thrive in Ghana.
“For those that may have missed this; the erstwhile Mahama government issued an infinite resident permit to Aisha Huang.”
“Precisely on 28th March 2015, Aisha Huang was given an indefinite resident permit to live here in perpetuity and to engage in her illegal activities. This happened under the Mahama administration. Meanwhile, she was unsuccessful in getting the permit during the President Kufour era.”
“So you see, any dastardly attempt by the NDC to rationalize the political economy of galamsay must be roundedly condemned. It is beyond dispute that under John Mahama-led government, the national record of the deleterious impact of galamsay left a lot to be desired. It was simply unprecedented.”
He explained that all the Akufo-Addo administration has been doing is simply managing a very bad situation as well as it can by the deft and relatively constructive application of the statutory laws of the land.
The National Communications Officer of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi while addressing a press conference in Accra on Thursday, October 6, 2022, said the President is not backing his efforts with action.
He described the measures and strategies put in place by government to win the war against the illegality as a clear deception, alleging that some members of the NPP and government are behind galamsey in the country.
