Former Ashanti Regional Minister, Dr. Samuel Sarpong has condemned National Democratic Congress(NDC) member, Kwaku Boahen for campaigning against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the galamsey fight.
According to him, it is not proper for any NDC member to score political points from the galamsey fight.
Mr. Sarpong pledged the party’s commitment to investigate the matter and sanction Mr Boahen if he is found guilty.
“I have not listened to what exactly he said, I will confirm that from Sammy Gyamfi. I condemn such a statement from Kwaku Boahen because our flagbearer is seriously against galamsey and would never want to score political points out of that.
“I will contact Sammy Gyamfi who is the National Communications Officer to investigate the matter and we will deal with him if he really supported galamsey,” he said.
Speaking to Nana Jantuah on Nhyira FM’s Kroyimunsem show, Dr. Samuel Sarpong attributed the difficulty in fighting illegal mining to leadership failure.
The former Minister believes President Akufo-Addo supervised the passage of a bill which allowed miners into the country’s forest reserves which has cost the nation valuable trees and other resources.
“It is Nana Addo who allowed galamsey in our forest reserves by introducing a bill that he knows will destroy our forest. Some trees which are over 50 years old have all been destroyed. If we want to blame someone, it should be the president who has all the powers as a leader of the country,” he stated.
Dr. Sarpong believes the National Democratic Congress fought galamsey better than any other government. He indicated that former presidents Mills and Mahama fought to the extent of repatriating Chinese illegal miners.
“President Mills started the fight very well and even under former president Mahama we deported several Chinese galamseyers. This track record shows that we are better in the fight,” he said.
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