A Deputy National Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) says the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has no morale right to criticise the government over the Galamsey menace. 

Ernest Owusu-Bempah said NDC’s track record in managing the canker is horrible and thus have no credibility to contribute to the discussion on the matter. 

According to him, the NDC and its executives are playing the ostriches and should be called out. 

In press statement issued on Thursday, April 27, Mr Owusu-Bempah said NDC’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi knows nothing the issues and should keep quiet. 

He stated that policies such Youth in Small Scale Mining Programme by former President John Mahama is what opened the floodgates to illegal mining in the country. 

“As for Sammy Gyamfi, his sense of self importance outsized his myopia.

“He wadded into this matter and made off handed remarks about people mentioned in the so-called Frimpong-Boateng report and claim he is leading the charge about the galamsey fight, not knowing to this opportunistic partisan falcon, it was the Mahama administration that shamelessly launched the Youth in Small Scale Mining programme in the Eastern Region, which apparently opened the floodgate for galamsey,” he said. 

The NDC has labelled the leaked report on the activities of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on illegal mining as “an obituary of President Akufo-Addo’s monumentally failed fight against illegal mining”.

The party at a press conference on Tuesday, chronicled various highlights of the report to support its claim that the fight against illegal mining was not a genuine one from the very outset.

Addressing the press at its ‘Moment of Truth Series’, the National Communication Officer of the party, Sammy Gyamfi, named officials at the seat of government whom he alleged, were cited in the 37-page report to have acted in ways that promoted illegal mining activities in some parts of the country.

Of particular reference were Laud Commey, Director of Operations at the Presidency, Frank Asiedu Bekoe, Special Aide to the Chief of Staff and one Charles Nii Teiko Tagoe, a Presidential Staffer, who have been faulted by the report for one wrong or the other.

The party also called out legal practitioner and nephew of President Akufo-Addo, Gabby Asare Otchere Darko, for placing a call to former Environment Minister, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, and engaging in what they termed influence peddling, when he sought to defend the work of his client, one Donald Entsuah over the activities of Heritage Imperial Mining Limited in the Diaso, Kobro and Apaprama forest reserves.

The party chided the President’s nephew for defending wrong-doing and urged Ghanaians to condemn his conduct.

A recent 37-page leaked report on the activities of the defunct Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM), has placed on the front burner, various issues that have plagued Government’s fight against illegal mining, leading to the eventual dissolution of the Inter-Ministerial Committee.

The NDC believes there is some collusion among high-profile government and New Patriotic Party officials who have been complicit in promoting the activities of illegal mining for their own benefit, hence the failed fight.

The party has therefore called on the Special Prosecutor, Kissi Adjabeng and Parliament to activate a full-blown probe into the report into to establish the truth and punish all who are found culpable.  

But Owusu-Bempah says the NDC is equally responsible for the canker the nation is faced with.