Member of Parliament (MP) for Effiduase-Asokore Constituency on the ticket of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye, has made a sharp U-turn on a comment which suggested the NPP would never ban illegal mining (galamsey).
According to him, the ban could lead to the NPP taking critical hits in the December 7, 2024 elections.
“The NDC saw that we [NPP] were winning the seats in the mining areas, so they decided to go and import foreigners to engage in illegal mining on our water bodies. The whole water bodies have not been a problem until now, it just started one month ago. It is someone behind that to force the NPP government to stop galamsey so that we will lose the seats. We won’t stop them [Galamseyers] today or tomorrow.”
“Then they take their journalists to talk about it. Is galamsey done in Accra? They should come to Kumasi to demonstrate against galamsey; like they will see,” he said.
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The MP made these comments at a Bawumia Volunteers 2024 (B24) launch in Kumasi.
After receiving backlash from Ghanaians, Dr. Ayew Afriyie now claims his remarks were misinterpreted and taken out of context.
In an interview with an Accra-based radio station, he reiterated that his original comments on small-scale mining were misreported. He emphasized the need to differentiate between responsible small-scale mining operations and those harmful to the environment.
According to Dr. Afriye, the NPP-led government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has been working tirelessly to combat illegal small-scale mining, commonly known as “galamsey.”
However, he notes that galamsey has surged in recent months, prompting the NDC to call for a blanket ban on mining. Dr. Afriye argues that such a ban would unfairly affect small-scale miners who operate responsibly, and that his comments were misinterpreted.
