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Co-Chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr. Steve Manteaw, says President Akufo-Addo’s inaction concerning Professor Frimpong Boateng’s damning report on galamsey in Ghana demonstrates the government is unserious about the fight against the menace.
The former Chairman of the Inter-ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (ICIM) in a 36-page document had accused top ranking political actors in the government of thwarting the fight against galamsey and involving themselves in the same.
President Akufo-Addo is yet to react to the report which was issued in 2021.
According to Dr. Manteaw, such a report should have elicited some form of action from the government to help address the concerns in the report.
“If we were a serious country, serious in terms of taking action on the recommendations of reports of this nature perhaps we would have acted in ways that helps us to address this menace,” he said on JoyNews’ Newsfile.
“For instance, once we know that the problem has to do with vested interest at the highest level and you want to set an example of high political office holders who actually engage in galamsey. So for instance, if it has to be a chief who has to be put on trial for involvement in galamsey, that will send a signal, at least it will put the fear of God in those who may be tempted to get into it,” he added.
According to him, the failure of the president to act shows the government’s complicity in galamsey and rubbishes all state-led attempts at fighting it.
“But to the extent that at the level of the presidency, there’s a certain complicity then it becomes very difficult to fight it. So I’ve always actually described the fight against galamsey as a charade and I’ve never really taken the president serious especially when he said he was putting his job on the line.
“From 2021 when he received this report what has he done about it? Not even a public expression of indignation of the revelations in this report and directing actions that will actually get to the bottom of the allegations contained in the report,” he said.
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