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The largest opposition party, National Democratic Congress
(NDC), is demanding that the Akufo-Addo-led administration make full public
disclosure on all items and equipment seized by the Operation Vanguard
taskforce while fighting illegal small-scale mining popularly known as
galamsey.
The NDC argues that the public display and
exhibition of the seized items will be in the spirit of transparency and
accountability.
These demands were contained in a press
statement read on behalf of the party by Mr Sammy Gyamfi, National
Communication Officer on the banks of River Pra in Twifo Praso, a town located
in the Twifo Ati Morkwa District of the Central Region on Sunday, 16 February
2020.
“The NDC further demands that the Akufo-Addo
government, as a matter of urgency, should fully account for all items seized
as listed at paragraph 801 of the 2020 Budget Statement presented to
Parliament. We insist that a public exhibition of all 900 excavators, 2,779
weapons and ammunitions and the 4,045 other mining equipment confiscated must
be held in the spirit of transparency and to the benefit of all Ghanaians,” Mr
Gyamfi said.
He added that the NDC is “terrified at the
prospect of all these weapons finding their way into the hands of hoodlums
belonging to NPP vigilante groups in an election year.”
Mr Gyamfi further said the current state of
affairs reflects the failure of Nana Akufo-Addo’s so-called fight against
galamsey and said the government’s fight against the menace was a “ruse to kick
out legal small-scale miners and artisanal galamseyers and replace them with a
new breed of marauding illegal miners belonging to the ruling New Patriotic
Party and government.”
