Missing excavators: NPP top officials not involved – John Boadu

General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), John Boadu says top officials of NPP are not involved in galamsey as being speculated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC).

He said the Akufo-Addo led government will not tolerate any degradation of the environment by galamsey operators.

John Boadu stressed that the accusations by Sammy Gyamfi is false and frivolous.

"All the accusations by the Sammy Gyamfi is complete propaganda and are not based on facts.

"I have never being involved in galamsey and I will never do that,is never true some NPP officials are involved in illegal mining to raise fund to support their campaign for the 2020 elections,those allegations are completely false,” John Boadu told Kwaku Dawuro on ‘Pae Mu Ka’ on Accra-based Kingdom FM 107.7

Speaking at a press conference in Accra on Thursday, 6 February 2020, the Director of Communications of the NDC, Sammy Gyamfi said the missing excavators’ saga is a scheme by Mr Akufo-Addo to allow NPP bigwigs to go back into galamsey to create wealth for themselves.

He said: “This galamsey scandal is the result of a grand scheme setup by President Akufo-Addo himself to enrich NPP officials to finance the New Patriotic Party.

“This is the reason he populated the Anti-Galamsey committees with top NPP officials like Ekow Ewusi, Charles Bissue among others. It is now crystal clear, that after spending millions of tax payers money on the Inter-Ministerial Committee Against Illegal Mining (IMCIM), ‘Galamstop’, ‘Operation Vanguard’ and other activities, and after killing and maiming several young Ghanaians, certain top officials of the Akufo-Addo government have teamed up with officials of the NPP to callously takeover the illicit galamsey trade, despite its deleterious effects on our environment and human lives.

In the past, certain political figures have been accused of owning mine concessions and engaging in illegal mining activities.

He said considering the staggering number of Ghanaian’s who are involved in galamsey, the NPP would rather regularise the operations of illegal miners to enable them operate responsibly to earn a living.

Ghana’s water bodies and forests have borne the brunt of the destructive activities of the illegal miners.