Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mustapha Gbande, has launched a scathing attack on the Akufo-Addo administration, accusing it of deliberately enabling the widespread destruction of Ghana’s forest reserves and water bodies through reckless issuance of mining leases and regulatory failure.
Speaking on Citi Eyewitness News on Thursday, May 8, Gbande claimed that over 2,000 mining leases were granted under the former government without proper oversight, leading to extensive environmental damage.
“We all know that the cumulative degradation of our forest reserves and water bodies was supervised, incentivized, granted, and approved by President Akufo-Addo and his Minister for Lands, with the involvement of his appointees,” he alleged.
According to him, the institutions responsible for environmental regulation—the Minerals Commission, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources—failed to monitor and control mining operations under Akufo-Addo’s watch.
“You have a responsibility through these institutions to supervise the mining activity—they couldn’t do that,” he stressed.
Gbande contrasted the past inaction with the current administration’s efforts, applauding the aggressive clampdown on illegal mining activities in just four months under President John Dramani Mahama.
“If we have come, and within four months you have seen the aggression with which the military, the police, and infact national security are combatting mining-related crime, then it tells you who’s serious about saving Ghana’s environment,” he said.