Amina Alhassan, a Ghana Institute of Journalism student, has questioned the government’s commitment to ending illegal mining, also known as “galamsey.”
According to public record, President Akufo-Addo has pledged to put his “presidency on the line” for the “galamsey” fight.
Ghanaians received some hope and assurance from this promise that the government is willing and prepared to end the threat.
However, in 2019, the investigation conducted by Tiger Eye P.I. revealed that some government officials accepted bribes in order to permit “galamsey” activities to continue.
Also, a JoyNews documentary called “Destruction for Gold,” which aired two weeks ago, showed that the Ashanti Regional NPP Chairman’s mining company, Akonta Mining Limited, was doing illegal mining in the Tano Nimiri Forest Reserve.
Amina Alhassan believes that despite President Akufo-Addo’s promise to “put his presidency on the line” for the galamsey fight, the government is unwilling and unprepared to put an end to the threat.
She claims that the fact that government officials are found to be deeply involved in illegal mining and to be complicit in it is evidence of their inability to fight “galamsey.”
She stated on Sunday’s episode of JoyNews’ The Probe, “I think when it comes to ‘galamsey,’ we are not really ready to fight it because if we were, we would not have even come to this current situation…to come to this point and allegedly party members were going through with ‘galamsey,’ even when the sanction was put in place that means we were never ready for the fight.”
In the meantime, President Akufo Addo has pledged to deal with government officials who may be involved in illegal mining.
The President stated that because the government has been fighting “galamsey” for a number of years, officials cannot continue to compromise their efforts.
This was something he said when he met with MMDCEs on October 5 to support the fight against canker in court.
“I am not here to threaten anyone, but I want you to know that this is a struggle that I take very seriously and that I will not be able to protect anyone against whom evidence is massed about their complicity in this matter…I am a lawyer and I always deal with facts, and when the facts are brought against you, you will be invited to comment on them. I am not here to threaten anyone, but I want you to know that this is a struggle that I take very seriously.