Government has given up on their pretentious fight on Galamsey - Suhuyini

Alhassan Suhuyini, a ranking member of the Lands and Natural Resources Committee in Ghana's Parliament has questioned the government's ability to successfully combat unlawful mining, popularly known as galamsey. 

This follows intensive mining activities on the main Kumasi-Accra route, which pollute the Owere River, which supplies water to Konongo and adjacent settlements.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Minerals Commission claimed they were only told about a dredging exercise by the Asante Akim Central Assembly and had no knowledge of the mining activity.

Alhassan Suhuyini is a Ranking member of Lands and Resources Committee in Ghana’s Parliament. 

In an interview with Citi News, Alhassan Suhuyini stated that the apparent involvement of government officials in the illicit mining scourge undermines hope in the fight.

"Look at how the community mining is done across the country. It is preserved or reserved as jobs for their boys in the various communities where mining takes place."

“No proper scrutiny and supervision is done. These people just engage in the destruction of their forests and land that is allocated to them. So I’m not surprised that it is happening in Konongo.”

“I’m not surprised that it is happening in the Upper East. I’m not surprised that it’s happening even in the Savannah region, around the Bole-Bamboi areas, where people are given these parcels of land because of their affiliation to the New Patriotic Party without any supervision, without any training, and they just engage in destruction."

"It is evidence of the fact that this government has simply checked out from the pretentious fight that they started because they have seen clearly that people have seen through the facade" he stated.

Source: Lead News Online/Ransford Afotey Mensah