Member of Parliament for the Tamale Central Constituency, Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed says President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is unwilling and unprepared to fight illegal mining which is destroying water bodies across the country.
Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed believes the President of the Republic is only paying lip service with his pledge to eradicate the menace.
“Look at what happened to Aisha Hung? Clearly, someone was prosecuted by a court of competent jurisdiction the person was allowed to be taken out of the country and the only reason the Senior Minister (Osarfo Marfo) gave for that act was that they were looking at what stood to benefit from China. This was the explanation given by the Senior Minister,” he said on Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on Thursday.
According to Mr. Murtala Mohammed, “You have another person who is engaging in that act and this is the action you give and that action is nothing.”
Citing an incident to buttress his point, the Tamale Central lawmaker said, “Mind you when there was a leak time of a District Chief Executive (DCE) for Bosome Freho, the president said in addressing the MMMDCEs that look ‘you are my representatives and if at the central government level, I’m fighting galamsey (If he is being sincere with his fight against galamsey, anyway) that you people are doing or engage in something that will undermine that fight then you will be destroying the entire government’ – that is what the President himself said.”
His comments come on the heels of President Akufo-Addo jumping to the defence of Akonta Mining Company Limited, claiming that the firm is not engaged in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.
Akonta Mining owned by the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Bernard Antwi-Boasiako commonly called Chairman Wontumi has been in the news for mining in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve in the Western Region without recourse to the law.
However, speaking at the 28th National and 16th Biennial Congress of the National Union of Ghana Catholic Diocesan Priests Association in Koforidua, President Nana Akufo-Addo stressed that Akonta Mining has not been involved in any wrongdoing.
“I want to assure you all that Akonta Mining is not engaged in any form of illegal mining anywhere in Ghana as we speak,” he insisted.
Meanwhile, the Media Coalition Against Galamsey recently revived its calls for the arrest and prosecution of directors and officers of Akonta Mining Limited for their alleged involvement in the illegality.
By: Bernard Ralph Adams | Metrotvonline.com | Ghana
