The President, Nana Akufo-Addo, has confirmed that there are major setbacks in the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) in the country.
According to him, despite the fact that the his administration has waged a war against those destroying water bodies and the quality of the forest through Galamsey activities, “the fight isn’t won” yet.
Speaking during his encounter with the media at the Flagstaff house on Wednesday, President Akufo-Addo said: “we have a long way to go in putting in place the structures against small scale miners.”
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According to the President, there are several measures, tactics and structures that remain to be put in place before the fight could be said to be won.
“There are measures we need to advance and intensify before we can say we have won the fight…” he maintained.
The President said there are hidden issues within the galamsey discourse that have not being sufficiently articulated, citing the example of revenue losses to government.
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“Some of the outcome of the galamsey menace are not sufficiently addressed or articulated. The senior minister was on a visit to Dubai and was met with the gleeful story that you are doing well”.
According to the President, they claimed we were doing well because they recorded a total import of 7 billion dollars worth of gold last year when indeed the figures showed that only 2 billion worth of gold was exported, suggesting that the country was criminally shortchanged to the tune of 5 billion dollars.
Reiterating his resolve for the fight, the President said: “I think we should all be clear that this is one fight we can’t withdraw from. We need to proceed to preserve our water bodies and quality of the forest…”.
Source: Ghana/Adomonline.com/Dennis Kofi Adu
