The former Member of Parliament (MP) for Dormaa East, Paul Apraku Twum Barimah, has criticized President Dramani Mahama for failing to fulfil his campaign promised of ending the illegal mining activities, popularly called Galamsey in his first 90 days.
He has thus advised president Mahama and his ministers to apologize to former president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, for levelling false allegations against him as a beneficiary of illegal mining.
‘As I speak to you now the Galamsey menace has gone out of control with armed guards moving into forest reserves attacking and killing officers of Forestry Commission. This is not what Ghanaians were promised. Ghanaians were promised an end to Galamsey but that is not what we are experiencing,” he stated.
According to Paul Twum Barimah, President Akufo Addo in his 8-year tenure fought strongly against illegal mining to a point that the NPP lost votes in mining areas and mining communities in the 2020 and the 2024 general elections.
“President Akufo Addo never got any support from Mahama and the NDC in his fight against illegal mining at the time to tackle the menace. The NDC rather protested against the NPP government and succeeded making it unpopular among Ghanaians. Today, their members are deeply engaged in galamsey and destroying our forest reserves,” the former MP added.
Recall that in the lead up to the December 2024 general elections, then candidate Mahama promised to end the galamsey menace in his first 90 days in office but that is yet to happen, leaving many wondering the sincerity in the president’s promise.
“Since Mahama and his government have not been able to end galamsey in three months as they promised, they need to apologize to President Akufo Addo. Mahama and Sam George denigrated President Akufo Addo and even accused the former president of being complicit and a beneficiary of galamsey, a sad situation. Today it has become obvious that President Akufo Addo is not complicit and also not a beneficiary of illegal mining, so they have to apologize to Nana Akufo Addo,” he observed.
