The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has accused the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) of hypocrisy in its fight against illegal small-scale mining, popularly known as galamsey.
The MP argues that the NPP lost votes in galamsey communities during the 2020 elections not because of its commitment to the fight against galamsey, but because of its failure to address the issue in a fair and transparent manner.
Speaking in a panel discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on April 25, 2023, he asserted that Professor Frimpong-Boateng, who previously served as the Minister for Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, had recently admitted to the insincerity of the government's fight against galamsey in his explosive report on the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Illegal Mining (IMCIM) presented to the Chief of Staff.
According to Suhuyini, the community members and chiefs in the affected areas were upset because the government had banned all forms of mining, yet some bigwigs and party people were given protection to mine in forest reserves.
He alleged that soldiers were brought in to provide protection for people to mine in their communities during the supposed ban.
“I said it in 2020 when the president and his communicators went on a rampage saying that they lost in galamsey communities because of their fight against galamsey, that it wasn’t true. Professor Frimpong-Boateng admits to what I said then, the reason why they lost in those areas is because the people were witnesses to the ununiform fight, and the people were angry by that because they had been stopped from mining but there was evidence that, there are big wings and party people who were given protection to mine in those forest reserves, when they had been stopped from mining.
“So, it was as a result of their disappointment, in the way the fight was waged that they punished the NPP, it was not because the NPP was committed to the fight and for which reason they lost votes, no it was the hypocrisy, and that is what Professor Frimpong Boateng admits to, the community members were upset, chiefs were upset…because soldiers were brought to provide protection for people to mine in their communities when there was supposed to be a ban.
"…this has come to confirm what we have always suspected, that there was never a fight in the first place, there was a platform created for people to be protected and for the operation to be limited to a few,” he said.
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Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini