The Small Scale Miners Association has accused the ruling New Patriotic Party of intentionally collapsing small-scale mining businesses and taking over.
The association claims that the government intentionally implemented a ban on mining activities after taking over management to combat illegal mining, also known as galamsey.
However, the original plan was to collapse their business, allowing politicians, cronies, and government assigns to take over.
President of the Association, Michael Kojo Peprah, said small-scale mining activities have taken a nose dive and the government must accept all the blame.
Speaking on Frontline on Rainbow Radio 87.5 FM, he opined that it was about time we spoke truth to power and has challenged chiefs and other stakeholders to tell the government point blank that it has failed in dealing with galamsey.and collapsed small scale mining.
He said: “we vote for leaders to transform our lives and put in measures to create opportunities for everyone, including farmers, traders, small-scale miners, and others, to have a good standard of living. The purpose of an election is to create opportunities for all, not just a selected few. We have a duty to let our political leaders understand this point so they can do better than they are doing today”.
He indicated that we have resources that should benefit the country, including mining, but the political leaders, for their selfish interests, have deployed mechanisms to deprive those in small-scale mining activities.
He argued that the attempt to stop galamsey has failed because there is no alternative livelihood for those involved.
‘’The point I would also want to point out is that this government is against mining in the sense that it introduced a ban on small-scale mining activities, creating untold hardship on stakeholders. Several young people are in prison today because of small-scale mining and galamsey. There is no government in our history that has embarked on such an unfortunate activity by banning our activities, which collapsed several of our businesses. The truth of the matter is that the politicians have taken over small-scale mining. They have taken over our concessions. This is an unprecedented incident. That is why some of our chiefs are talking. We cannot allow foreigners, including the Chinese, to be mining when Ghanaians are deprived of the same opportunities,’’ he told host Kwabena Agyapong.
He announced that the small-scale miners would soon organise a conference to invite the political parties, submit their proposals to them, and demand their policy direction for small-scale mining activities.
He said the politicians who have taken over the concessions lack capacity to mine and are rather handing over these concessions to the Chinese to work on.
‘‘I would repeat that this government is against mining. Bawumia is also against mining. He has no plan for us. When Joe wise proposed that shoot to kill comments, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia was still the Vice President but said nothing. When our excavators were seized, he said nothing.’’
Mr. Kojo Peprah confessed, “Our expectation was that we would engage in responsible mining, and that is why this government introduced the Operation Stop Galamsey through the Operation Vanguard initiative, but we are back at square one. The galamsey fight has failed and they have taken over our concessions and transferred them to Chinese nationals.
A person with a shovel and pickaxe was recently prosecuted and sentenced to 15 years in prison on galamsey charges, yet the Chinese who destroyed our water bodies have been permitted to continue working. So, where are fairness and justice? Where are the drones for the galamsey fight? Where were the autos for the galamsey fight? Didn’t the government assure us they’d track excavators? Where are the trackers? Didn’t they promise mining police? Ask them, “Where are the police they promised?”
Source: rainbowradiooline.com
