President of the Concerned Farmers Association, Nana Oboadie Bonsu, has criticised Minority Chief Whip, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, over his recent comments on galamsey funding, arguing that the previous administration failed to take meaningful action against illegal mining.

Mr Annoh-Dompreh had earlier accused the government of paying lip service to the fight against illegal mining despite Parliament’s approval of GH₵1.8 billion for the Lands and Natural Resources Ministry. He questioned why no dedicated funding was allocated to combat illegal mining, calling for urgent discussions to provide the needed resources for the ministry’s efforts.

Reacting to these remarks in an interview on JoyNews' The Pulse on Thursday, March 27, Mr Oboadie Bonsu dismissed Mr Annoh-Dompreh’s concerns, accusing the previous government of negligence when it had the opportunity to address the issue.

“Frank Annoh-Dompreh has no moral right to comment on this matter. When their government was in power, we submitted a letter to the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources outlining solutions, but nothing was done.

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“They should give us a break because if they had done something meaningful, we wouldn’t be in this situation today,” he said.

He recalled instances where the Minerals Commission, under its previous CEO, was more proactive in supporting efforts to curb galamsey.

“We had young people in the bush engaging in galamsey, but they were willing to quit and start pig farming instead. The Commission supported this initiative, unlike the former administration, which spent millions of dollars claiming to fight galamsey while achieving nothing,” he said.

Oboadie Bonsu further alleged that officials from the previous government benefited financially from illegal mining rather than combating it. He called out former Lands Minister Abu Jinapor, questioning his contributions to addressing the crisis.

“All they did was exploit the country’s resources for their own benefit. Look at how much money was spent, yet nothing changed. These people were just enriching themselves while pretending to fight galamsey,” he added.