The Minister of Information, Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, has said the call by former president, John Mahama, that President Akufo-Addo resign is misplaced.
The former president backed his statement with President Akufo-Addo’s pledge in 2017 to put his presidency on the line for the galamsey fight.
Speaking on Asaase’s Big Bulletin, Oppong Nkrumah described Mahama’s call as misplaced, adding, “It’s about what the facts of the evidence say, the facts say that on Mr Mahama’s watch, Aisha Huang was arrested twice and was never even prosecuted. He didn’t even resign.”
For his part, a member of the Defence and Interior Committee of Parliament, Kofi Adams insists the president ought to resign.
He described the fight against galamsey as a total failure, adding, “It’s very clear that the current president doesn’t mean his words when he said he was putting his government on the line in terms of fighting against galamsey.”
“If we were in any other country like by now the president should have resigned clearly as a result of the clear failure in his fight against galamsey. There is a total failure in the fight against galamsey.”
“Unhealthy development”
Meanwhile, a security analyst and international relations expert, Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso has described the altercations between the former president and the government as unhealthy.
Antwi-Danso said the fight against the galamsey menace needs to be devoid of politics.
“I don’t think it’s healthy and I don’t think it’s good. It does nothing to the problem. There is a problem which should be tackled apolitically … At times there are even innocuous issues that we politicise, we don’t get the results.”
“This galamsey didn’t start from this government, neither did it start from the previous government. But it got worst and the president wanted it to be put down. We have not succeeded in getting it off. But it doesn’t mean that we should allow it to fester or we should just talk about it from the positions where we belong.”
