The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has called on the government to ban all mining activities in the country until further notice.
According to the General Secretary for the Party, Nana Yaa Jantuah, it will allow the country put in place better policies to make mining beneficial to the citizenry.
She, therefore, called on President Akufo-Addo to stick to his promise concerning the fight against illegal mining and resign.
She added that CPP strongly believes that the NPP government has failed woefully in the fight against galamsey, and it was high time the president resigned as he promised at the initial stage of the campaign against illegal mining.
Nana Yaa Gyantuah made this assessment during Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday celebration at the party’s headquarters at Asylum Down in Accra.
President Akufo Addo, at the beginning of the fight against galamsey, put the presidency on the line emphasizing the government’s commitment to end illegal mining.
The government rolled out several policies, yet water bodies and farmlands keep deteriorating by the activities of illegal miners.
“The mining is not helping us. How much does the country even gain from legal mining? At a point, we had some 55% stake in AGC [Ashanti Goldfields Company] but now we have barely three per cent.
“And we feel the President has failed the fight against galamsey. He was the one who said he was prepared to put his presidency on the line for the fight. So the time is due for him to resign for a more competent person to take over,” she stated.
Meanwhile, the Director for External Affairs for the NDC and Board Chairman JEA Mills Heritage, Mr Alex Segbefia, also said the “divide and rule of the UP tradition has worked up to date, and it is in our hands to change that.”
“Unity does not mean leave your party and come to our party. That’s not what we are talking about; unity, collaboration, meeting, having common purposes and working together that’s all. So let all endeavour to move in that direction.
He indicated that, to achieve that “we must confront the elephant in the room; it is called the different languages (monetary issues)” with our sacrifices.
