The Association of Small-Scale Miners has expressed serious reservations about the promise of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to better their living standards.
Dr Bawumia who is the flagbearer of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), as part of his campaign, pledged to make small-scale miners millionaires and multi-millionaires by allocating mining concessions to them if elected as President during the upcoming general elections.
However, the President of the association, Michael Kojo Preprah described the promise as a political gimmick geared towards soliciting votes from miners.
He further accused the Vice President of contributing to the hardships the small-scale mining industry was facing currently.
“I think he’s only trying to lie to us. We became very poor when this government came to power. That was when they placed the one-year ban on our sector. We were in this country when the government started burning excavators,” he said in an interview on Citi FM.
“He was the Vice President when government started burning excavators and Joe Osei Owusu told this country to shoot to kill small scale miners,” Mr Preprah added.
The President of the association, Michael Kojo Preprah lamented that Dr Bawumia did little to console or address the hardships small scale miners were facing during those times and as such, nothing he says now would convince them to rally behind him.
He described the promises as a joke and accused the NPP flagbearer of being deceitful.
“Because of what they did to us, he couldn’t even come to the various mining districts to campaign in 2020,” Mr Prepah said.
“So if you have about six months to redeem what your government has done and you’ve not been able to do it and you come back to promise us that you’re going to make us millionaires then we see what he said as a joke. We see what he says as lies and we take it as something he just wants to say to win power. His promises will not convince us to go and follow or vote for him again,” he stressed.
Source: graphic.com.gh
