Chiefs involved in galamsey are more than those destooled – Odike to Otumfuo

Ghanaian politician and businessman Akwasi Addai Odike has praised Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for destooling some sub-chiefs over illegal mining activities.

Odike stated that the traditional ruler should be commended for initiating this trend.

He believes this will send a message to other chiefs to refrain from reckless and illegal behaviour.

He has, however, requested that the overlord dig deeper because there are more suv-chiefs involved in illegal mining.

He made the remarks during an interview on Rainbow Radio 87.5Fm’s Nyankonton Mu Nsem.

He was responding to a question about whether he felt vindicated as a result of what the Asantehene did.

He responded affirmatively, declaring that he had been vindicated despite the attempt to kill him after he went public to expose the chiefs behind illegal mining.

”God is a great God, and he will vindicate you if you are truthful. Some chiefs are self-centred and only care about what benefits them, so they avoid any form of development. They sell lands and have done all of these evil things, depriving the people of what is rightfully theirs. Some of them take out loans just to become chiefs, and once they are, they sell stool loans to pay off their debts. They don’t care about the people’s interests.”

He said, ”I had to publicly declare my comments because ”what they [the chiefs] were doing was not the best, and thus they did not like what I did. So they arranged for people to come and kill me. They came to my office and shot at me, attempting to kill me. But God was gracious to me and spared my life”.

In response to the question, he stated, ”there are several chiefs who are involved in galamsey.” Those who have been deposed are few. There are several of them, and if the overlord digs deeper, he will discover that there are more sub-chiefs involved in the illegal activity”.

Meanwhile, he has urged residents and anyone else with information about chiefs involved in galamsey to report it to the Asantehene so that they can be punished.

”I will encourage the people to go to Manhyia and expose such chiefs who are conspiring with illegal miners to destroy our water bodies,” he said, referring to the Asantehene’s readiness to deal with such matters.