A potential flagbearer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kennedy Agyapong, has stated that if elected president, he will take steps to regularize galamsey.
Speaking in an Nsem PII TV video sighted by GhanaWeb, Ken Agyapong said that he is not going to destroy the business of galamseyers but rather provide them with the needed training and legalise their activities so that they can mine in an environmentally friendly way.
“The way galamseyers are destroying our water bodies, they should be registered under one body so that they can be regulated to make sure that they don’t destroy our forest, they don’t destroy our water bodies.
“When I come (become president), I will not say that their (the galamseyers’) work should be destroyed but we are going to regularise them, legalise their activities and give them the needed training,” he said Twi.
Ken Agyapong, the Member of Parliament for Assin Central, who was interacting with some Ghanaians in Nevada, USA, insisted that just as small-scale mining is done in America without destroying the environment, it can also be done in Ghana.
He added that allowing Ghanaians to own small-scale mining sites is better than fronting for foreigners to mine illegally.
The MP also said that one of the main reasons why galamsey is prevalent in Ghana is because there is no political will to stop it.
He added that politicians from both the NPP and the opposition, National Democratic Congress (NDC), are involved in the menace.