Group fights MP over lackadaisical approach in fighting galamsey
The United Patriotic Front (UPF), a splinter group within the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has expressed very deep concern over the skyrocketing rate of illegal mining, commonly referred to as galamsey, currently plaguing the Sefwi Akontombra District of the Western North Region.
According to them, the constituency under their Member of Parliament (MP) for the area, Pious Kwame Nkuah, has unfortunately become the hub of galamsey activities, making the district with the highest concentration of such operations in the entire Western North Region.
The President of UPF, Francis Eduful, in a press release dated Wednesday, April 23, and captioned; “Fighting the small, protecting the powerful : the galamsey dilemma in Akontombra under Pious Kwame Nkuah”, disclosed that key communities like Akrodie, Adukwasi, Ankra, Essase, Bopa Forest and Krukruwa were now hotbeds of destructive galamsey activities, with Chinese nationals and local collaborators deploying massive equipment to devastate farmlands and water bodies.
What is even more troubling, he narrated is the apparent selective approach to enforcement being led by their Member of Parliament.
“While local youth, armed with nothing more than pickaxes and mini pulp machines, also known as ‘small china’ are being targeted and arrested in abandoned sites previously used by kingpins, the real perpetrators who employ heavy machinery such as excavators, dozers, chanfangs, and washing plants continue to operate freely in broad daylight,” he lamented.
Francis Eduful in trying to find solutions to the rampant rate of illegal mining activities in the Sefwi Akontombra constituency questioned why the MP of the area and stakeholders have turned a blind eye to the major operations in the communities listed above.
“Why are the big fish operating in Akrodie, Adukwasi, Essase, Ankra, Bopa Forest and Krukruwa are untouchable while the poor and voiceless are being used as scapegoats, is the Honourable Member of Parliament a beneficiary of these operations, as is widely rumoured in town. If indeed these rumours are untrue as we hope, then we demand immediate action. Let Pious Kwame Nkuah demonstrate genuine commitment by leading the same security task force to clamp down on the heavily financed and well-equipped galamsey kingpins destroying our environment. Anything less is a betrayal of the trust the people of Akontombra placed in him,” he stated.
Francis Eduful pledged the United Patriotic Front’s commitment to continue to stand with the people in defending their lands and water bodies and holding their leaders accountable.
The press release was also respectively signed by Atsu G Christian and Stephen Obour, the Executive Secretary and Public Relations Officer of UPF
