Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament's Defense and Interior Committee says the involvement of members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in illegal mining activities led to the President’s inability to effectively fight the menace.

James Agalga described as woeful the output Mr Akufo-Addo made during his first term to end 'galamsey' following a statement by Chairman of the Committee, Kennedy Agyapong that some NPP members are actively involved in the act.

Speaking on Joy FM, Agalga explained that; “Now his very first attempt to deal with the 'galamsey' menace failed woefully. I mean, Operation Vanguard, Operation GalamStop, these operations were botched operations.

“Now, there is some renewed attempt by President Akufo-Addo at the very beginning of his second term in office to deal with the problem of galamsey once again. Now in his quest to do so, very important revelations have been made.

“If you recount how the Chairman of my Committee in Parliament, the Defense and Interior Committee clearly stated that President Akufo-Addo needs to embark on a house cleaning exercise if he aims to succeed in his fight against galamsey,” he told Evans Mensah.

Earlier on May 17, Assin Central MP, Kennedy Agyapong, government's attempts to tackle galamsey head-on would continue to remain futile unless the NPP officials involved are fished out.

He has further threatened to name and shame members of both NPP and NDC involved in the despicable act.

“I pity President Akufo Addo, because for this fight if the president doesn’t clean his house, we will not win. If you see the number of top NPP officials involved in galamsey whom I tried to fight and lost, you’d be shocked," he said.

Meanwhile, according to Mr Agalga, the President’s fight against illegal mining following this revelation must be without fear and favour.

He further entreated Akufo-Addo together with his Ministers to probe the said allegations and deal with the perpetrators as the law requires.

“Now the President knows the root causes of his failure. Now that he knows that the saboteurs are within, they are not coming from outside - the majority of them are within his own circle, so what will he do. I would expect him to crack the whip, like my Chairman has indicated without fear or favour,” he said.