Aide to former Vice-President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, Miracles Aboagye, has urged the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) to implement the “superior options” it promised Ghanaians ahead of the 2024 elections to end illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey.

He said on JoyNews Newsfile on Saturday that, "According to the nation, you (NDC) gave superior options to dealing with the galamsey menace, these are the things you said; you said that it is the president and his government functionaries who are involved, and so when you come, you will make sure that no party person of yours engages in galamsey. You said you are going to declare a state of emergency, you said you are going to ban all forms of small-scale mining for a while, which will give you room to see the situation and sanitise it. You said that you are going to use AI in the fight against galamsey."

Mr Aboagye argued that after the NDC secured victory, it failed to deliver on those commitments since assuming power. "If you come and you do not do these things and you are listing things that were already in existence before you came and telling us that, we should applaud you for it, you are a very destructive interlude, because the country was in a certain direction. Have they declared a state of emergency? Why haven't they declared a state of emergency?"

He maintained that the government must move beyond rhetoric, stressing that claims that they are on top of issues.

"The biggest betrayal in all this galamsey conversation is when I hear the NDC trying to make excuses for not declaring a state of emergency," he emphasised.