The National Democratic Congress (NDC) says details relating to the disappearance of some 500 excavators seized from illegal miners confirm the government’s hypocrisy in the anti-illegal mining fight.
According to the NDC’s National Communication’s Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, “the chilling and sordid revelations that have come to light since that scandal broke go to confirm the massive rot that has characterised President Nana Akufo-Addo’s so-called fight against ‘galamsey’ in the last three years.”
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Mr Gyamfi said the citing of governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) members for various galamsey related infractions shows that the government’s efforts are simply rhetoric.
He said the arrest of a suspended Deputy NPP Central Regional Chairman in relation to the 500 missing excavators corroborates the claims of the NDC that the NPP-led government is not interested in cracking down on galamsey.
“We are talking here about the Vice Chairman of the NPP in the Central Region, Mr Horace Ekow Ewusi, and five other accomplices who have taken advantage of the State’s fight against galamsey, to allegedly expropriate seized equipment including the 500 excavators, ounces of gold, thousands of weapons and other possessions of illegal miners,” he noted.
He said Mr Ewusi did not act alone as an NPP member. According to him, Environment, Science and Technology Minister, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, is seen in a purported video recording facilitating galamsey operations of leading members of the NPP.
Meanwhile, a leading member of the joint police and military taskforce, Operation Vanguard, which is has been deployed to fight galamsey, has said the team has started retrieving some of the missing excavators.
Speaking to Joy FM, Nana Boadi, leader of the special monitoring, evaluation, evacuation and investigation operations of Operation Vanguard said his team found the excavators on some mining sites following a tour and have since repossessed them.
The Minority in Parliament has, meanwhile, called for the arrest and prosecution of the Environment Minister for his alleged complicity in the matter.
For the opposition NDC, “those involved in the stealing of the 500 excavators and the stinking rot that has engulfed Akufo-Addo’s fraudulent fight against galamsey must know, that the day of accountability and reckoning is fast approaching.”