The Convener of the Media Coalition Against Galamsey, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, says civil society organisations are preparing to demand clarity from President John Mahama on what constitutes success in the fight against illegal mining.

Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express on Wednesday, the CEO of the Chamber of Mines said the coalition has long been waiting for this invitation to the Jubilee House.

“We have been waiting for this invitation, because the coalition had written to His Excellency, the President, and he had directed that we meet with the Minister for Lands in the first instance, and he was going to meet us. And we know that the minister had reported back to him, so we were expecting that.”

President Mahama is scheduled to host CSOs and government officials at a high-level meeting on Friday, October 3, to deliberate on solutions to the devastation caused by galamsey across the country.

But Dr. Ashigbey expressed concern about the format of the engagement.

“The only surprise we got was the fact that over 50 or so people have been invited, you know, and so it was going to really be a very large gathering. And so again, the agenda is not being, and the format of the meeting has not been clearly spelt out.”

Despite these concerns, he stressed that CSOs intend to make the most of the opportunity.

“We will take advantage of every opportunity that is given to us to resolve this. But even we are not going into this meeting to go and articulate the problems.

"We know very clearly what the problems are, and we know His Excellency knows what the problems are.”

Dr Ashigbey insisted that the meeting must move beyond listing challenges to securing presidential commitment.

“Like we said in our last press release that we gave, we are going to go into this meeting asking His Excellency, the President, what his definition of success is, what he would classify as having successfully executed this particular thing