The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has once again spoken up about galamsey and said it will never be solved until the real culprits behind it are arrested and prosecuted.
According to the Asante overlord, Ghanaian politicians are the true menace behind galamsey.
He said the miners on the ground are mere pawns and nothing will work until the true political powers financing their operations are dealt with.
“We all know that the galamsey we are all talking about is being championed by some Ghanaians and these Chinese and other nationals they bring in. You are pretending as if you don’t know the people who are into it, but you know all of them,” he said.
“You are always arresting galamseyers at the sites, but who takes the gold away? Do the illegal miners on the field have the money to buy the excavators they are using; can they afford the chamfans? It is someone who has bought these equipments for them. The illegal miners are people who don’t have jobs and have been employed by these financers and are being paid daily. What have they done wrong?
“Government officials, politicians are all implicit in the galamsey menace. They have all bought these excavators and the chamfans… If we don’t arrest them, then we are deceiving ourselves with this fight against galamsey,” he said in Twi at the Manhyia Palace as he was receiving a document on galamsey from the Multimedia Group.
The Asantehene has been making this clarion call for ages with no success.
Recently, the President personally assured Otumfuo of his government’s commitment to solve the issue during a meeting at Manhyia.
“We are here to eradicate galamsey and surely, it would be eradicated. No government has shown that resilience in the fight against galamsey,” President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo when he called on the Asantehene,
He indicated further “one issue that has generated negative public criticism is galamsey. Though it attracted less public discussion before my tenure, it is the talk of the town, even among traditional leaders. This means the issue is common and calls for all hands on deck to bring it to an end.”
Source: theGhanaianVoice.Com