Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah the Lands and Natural Resources Minister-designate has former president Akufo-Addo started the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) well but ended in failure.
He noted that Akufo-Addo started his galamsey fight with a ban on mining for six months and later extended it to nine months.
According to him, at the end of 8 years, everyone knows the outcome of the former president’s galamsey fight.
Speaking at his vetting by the Appointments Committee on Monday, Mr Armah-Kofi Buah stated, “It’s true the NPP administration started very well, there was a ban on mining places, it was six months, and it extended to nine months”.
“But at the end of the 8 years, the outcome is what we all know degraded lands, polluted water bodies, and wanton destruction of forest reserves. These are clear facts that indicate that that fight against was a failure”, he stated boldly.
The Lands Minister-designate further revealed that under his administration, no license will be issued for mining in forest reserves.
He further indicated that all illegal mining in Ghana’s forest reserves would be stopped.
Mr Armah-Kofi Buah stated, “What I am saying is that we are going to stop all these illegal mining in our forest reserves with these measures that I have described; the blue water initiative, tree for life initiative and restore Ghana to make sure that we harness our forest and bring back biodiversity and ecological life of our forest”.
“We are not going to open ourselves for further damage and that is why we are going to stop further issuance of any license for mining in forest reserve”, he added.
