National organizer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Joshua Akamba has admonished President Akufo-Addo over his ‘lukewarm’ fight towards illegal mining (galamsey) in the country.
This comes after the President on Wednesday, April 14 launched a two-day National Consultative Dialogue on small-scale mining at the Accra International Conference Centre to solicit views, proposals and suggestions from diverse stakeholders in the small-scale mining industry, to develop appropriate policy interventions for the sector.
Reacting to it, Mr Akamba indicated that the NDC failed to show up at the forum because they have no interest in what they described as a scam and a deliberate move to place family and friends at vantage positions within the sector.
He noted that if the President had any iota of seriousness in fighting galamsey head on, he should start by convicting some of his appointees who had been indicted in an exposé by investigative journalist, Anas Aremeyaw Anas.
“NDC has no interest in the National Dialogue on small scale mining and that is why none of us was present at the forum. In fact, the last time the party’s National Executives met we didn’t even discuss it as part of our agenda,” he said on Akoma FM.
Mr Akamba further explained that “if the president is indeed committed to this cause, he should have tried and convicted some indicted members within his government who were captured on video collecting bribe to allow people to indulge in the menace”.
So, for some of us we don’t take the president serious when he comes up with such antics,” he added.