Co-chair of the Ghana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Dr Steve Manteaw had described as a “charade” government’s fight against galamsey.
Speaking on JoyNews’ Newsfile on Saturday, April 22, 2023, he opined that the fight has been more of lip service than action oriented.
His comment follows the leaked report of the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) authored by Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, in which a number of government officials have been named as having engaged in galamsey or interfered with the work of the Committee.
Commenting on the report, the Professor asserted that the fight has become difficult since there officials at the Presidency involved.
“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 seriously, especially when he said he was putting his job on the line.
He further bemoaned the failure of President Akufo-Addo to act on the matter.
“Since 2021, when he received this report, what has he done about it? Not even a public expression of indignation at the revelations in this report and directing actions that will actually get to the bottom of the allegations contained in the report,” he said.
Meanwhile, the said officials including Charles Bissue , Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, Lord Commey, among others have all denied the allegations.