Member of Parliament for Bodi, Hon. Sampson Ahi has charged Ghanaians to hold President Akufo Addo responsible for every killing of an illegal miner.
Then Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo, while on his campaign trail ahead of the 2016 general elections, is reported by the Ghana News Agency as saying that the party would not halt illegal mining operations popularly known as “galamsey” in the Western Region when elected into power.
But soon after President Akufo Addo was elected and sworn into power he began a relentless war against galamsey placing a 6-month ban on small-scale mining and a temporary halt on the issuance of new mining licences in order to allow the natural bodies, degraded by the activities of illegal miners to recover.
He has stated clearly that he was willing to incur the wrath of potential voters and put his Presidency on the line by continuing the fight against galamsey.
Government earlier this month deployed a 400 strong Military/Police Taskfoce [Operation Vanguard] to some parts of the country to combat the galamsey menace. An illegal miner was shot and killed last week in the Ashanti Region after a team of illegal miners allegedly clashed with the taskforce.
But speaking on Agoo TV and to Kasapa FM, Hon. Sampson Ahi stated that several youth were encouraged by Nana Akufo Addo’s campaign talk and as a result went for loans to secure equipment to venture into the illegal activity.
“Nana Akufo Addo must be held responsible for the death of anyone who dies in relation to galamsey. You motivate them into galamsey with your campaign talk and when you get power, you turn round and use armed soldiers and police to drive them away from where they get their livelihood. In the process if someone is been killed, who should we hold responsible for such death. The President must be blamed for the needless deaths, he caused it.”