We inherited galamsey canker from NDC – NPP’s Miracles Aboagye

Dennis Miracles Aboagye, a spokesperson for the campaign of New Patriotic Party flagbearer and Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has accused the opposition National Democratic Congress of degenerating illegal mining, also referred to as galamsey, into a national canker during the party’s tenure in office.

According to him, the NDC, in the books of Ghanaian political history, is the party that watched and further actively promoted the menace of illegal mining in the country.

“Galamsey is an 80s, 60s, 70s, ancient pre-colonial activity, but they were not mining in river bodies. The actual river body galamsey that we are seeing today reared its head in 2010/2011. For the entire period that these people that are advocating for somebody to be scapegoated were in power, they couldn’t fight it; they gave up. They lifted their hands in despair. We are the people who have come to inherit this canker from them, and that should be put on record,” he stated in an interview on Joynews on Thursday, September 20, 2024.

While emphasizing the need to depoliticize the conversation around galamsey, Miracles argued that the NDC actually failed to deal with galamsey while in government.

“I am one person that has refrained from allowing myself to be drawn into this galamsey conversation on party lines. Whose purpose does it serve? Who wins in this? This galamsey menace, right from 2001, that is where it reared its head under the former president as vice president and former President Mills. Before, while former President Rawlings was in office, we had galamsey,” he stated.

He posited that contrary to attempts to cast blame on the current government for the current state of galamsey, the government of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the NPP has rather shown clear commitment in fighting the menace.

“It is we rather that are trying to fight a canker introduced by them, and so what should be done right now is to say, what is the government’s effort so far in the fight against this social canker? Why hasn’t it worked…” he said.