The Dean of Institute of Local Government Studies, Dr Fredrick Agyarko Oduro has called for an end to the politicization of the fight against illegal small small scale mining mining (Galamsey).
He stated that politicizing the fight empowers the criminals to go on with their practices.
The main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) have traded allegations and counter allegations over who caused the galamsey menace to rise in the country.
But speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 9, Dr Oduro Agyarko said “politicizing galamsey will give criminals the oxygen to engage in galasmey,
“we live in a country where organized crime in mining is virtually taking control of the country…and they are getting into the area of cocoa.”
He further proposed to the government to place a ban on all mining activities for a while in order to rescue the environment from Galamsey.
He said even if the ban will take one hundred years for the the country to recover the environment, it should be done.
Also speaking on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday October 8, he indicated that the country has been mining for centuries yet with little to show for.
He was commenting on the meeting President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo held with the National House of Chiefs in Kmasii on Wednesday October 5 in the issue of Galamsey.
“The first step is let’s put a ban on mining, if it will take 100 years that is fine because none of the solutions has worked,” he said.
He added “even the so-called legal mining what have we achieved from it?”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana