Former President John Dramani Mahama has told small-scale miners that they were deceived by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during the 2016 electioneering campaign.
He said then candidate Akufo-Addo promised not to collapse their businesses but after winning power, he has done otherwise.
Mr Mahama said at a durbar of cocoa farmers and small-scale miners at Agona Amenfi on Sunday, October 19 that at a time that the Akufo-Addo government has placed an embargo on all small-scale mining activities in order to deal with the illicit ones among them, supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have been allowed to continue with the trade in order to make ends meet.
This, Mr Mahama said, is discriminatory and wrong and assured that he will not disappoint the miners should he be voted for in this year’s elections.
“President Akufo-Addo promised not to collapse galamsey but what has he done? He has stopped your work.
“What is more painful is that he has allowed his people to engage in the practice to get money whereas he has barred his opponents form doing same. His people are still doing galamsey.
“President Akufo-Addo seizes excavators belonging to his opponents and gives them to his party people to engage in the trade.
“When we come to power we will retrieve all the missing excavators and give them back to their rightful owners.”
