Richard Ahiagbah, Director of Communications for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has made a request to the former president, John Dramani Mahama, to provide information on members of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) who, according to Ahiagbah, engaged in illegal small-scale mining, also known as galamsey, but had their equipment seized. Ahiagbah claims that the equipment belonged to NDC members who engaged in illegal mining.
Mr. Ahiagbah stated that the previous president needed to show enough patriotism to assist the authorities in bringing those responsible to justice.
Former President Mahama asserted that the government has been purposefully harassing NDC supporters who engage in galamsey while allowing NPP zealots to engage in the activity with impunity. Mr. Ahiagbah made the statement in response to his assertion. Mr. Ahiagbah’s call was made in light of this assertion.
In an interview with Eyewitness News on Citi FM, Mr. Ahiagbah denied the claims and stated that the government of Akufo-Addo has made achievements in its fight against galamsey. He also admonished the previous president to voluntarily provide information that would lead to the prosecution of persons involved in such activities.
“When the president took control of the fight against Galamsey, he engaged everyone because it was an open fight he was leading and there was no secret about it,” said the current president. “I call on other people to come on board and disregard the comments of the former president.”
“If the previous president is aware of anyone who is participating in galamsey, he owes it to us all to warn us about it since we are all working together to combat galamsey.” However, we are interested in identifying the supporters of the NDC who he claimed were involved in galamsey in order to bring charges against them for putting our future in jeopardy.
“We must be interested in what the former president is saying because it is revealing that there are NDC people who are doing galamsey, and he knows them and encourages them to keep doing it, but they are now disappointed because the fight against galamsey is successful,” Mr. Ahiagbah further emphasised.
“We must be interested in what the former president was saying because it is revealing that there are NDC people who are doing galamsey,”
Mr. Ahiagbah went on to say that the government’s campaign against galamsey has had some measure of success, and he made a plea for the continued participation and assistance of the general public in order to ensure the campaign’s continued viability.
“The Lands Minister is busy reclaiming Galamsey lands, and the fight against Galamsey is ongoing. We all need to make efforts to help make the fight successful,” said the minister of the lands.