A former Member of parliament for Madina, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho has criticised the Akufo-Addo administration for the escalating illegal mining activities that are heavily polluting river bodies and destroying forest reserves in the country.
Illegal mining, also known as ‘galamsey’ has become a critical national issue in Ghana, following viral social media pictures and videos of the country’s destroyed forest reserves and river bodies.
Recently, Organised Labour threatened a strike action following the Akufo-Addo government’s failure to tackle the indiscriminate plowing of rivers and forest reserves which has affected the turbidity of most river bodies in the country.
But Alhaji Sorogho has singled out President Akufo-Addo as the key personality who has supported the illegal small scale mining activities, citing the degree of destroyed forests ands rivers in the president’s home region- the Eastern Region.
Speaking on Dwaboase on Power FM, the former MP alleged that the governing NPP, led by Akufo-Addo, encouraged his appointees to make good use of galamsey to amass wealth to enable them hold on to political power for a long time.
“Akufo-Addo and some of his Akyem kingsmen had a meeting when he won power to plan on how to leverage galamsey to create wealth. Some of his Akyem people are good men, unlike Akufo-Addo who encourages galamsey,” Sorogho said.
He stated that since most appointees are benefitting from galamsey while some own concessions and mining without regulations, it would be difficult to clamp down on the menace under Akufo-Addo.
His comment comes on the back of concerns raised by many Ghanaians over the quality of water in the country’s river bodies.
Meanwhile, over 100 armed military personnel have been deployed to various water bodies as part of a renewed effort to clamp down on illegal mining.
Source: Myxyzonline.com
