A Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, George Mireku Duker, has debunked allegations of his involvement in illegal mining locally known as galamsey.
“I dared anyone who knows the concession to go and burn the excavators and nobody has been able to even after five years,” Mr Duker who doubles as Tarkwa-Nsuaem MP said this on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, Tuesday.
This comes a few weeks after a violent clash between two groups over a mining concession in Tarkwa.
The two sides involved in the dispute were alleged to be affiliated with small-scale mining giant, Okobeng and Mr Duker.
The leader of the group alleged to be affiliated with the MP died on the spot from a gunshot, while the leader of the Okobeng Mining group sustained deep cutlass wounds on the head and ears and was rushed to the Korle-Bu teaching hospital.
But to Mr. Duker, the allegations are false and a deliberate attempt by his political opponents to score political points.
The Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister said his constituents can testify that, he is not into ‘galamsey’.
“When you go to Tarkwa, they will tell you I am not a miner but I serve miners. Just as a fisherman in trouble at Efuttu will go to Afenyo, it is the same thing they will get in touch with me when in trouble. I understand mining because that is where am coming from,” he stated.
Listen to the audio above: