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The Communications Director of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Hon. Yaw Buaben Asamoa says the fight against illegal mining (galamsey) is yielding some positive results as the quality and levels of water in some water bodies have improved.

According to him, President Nana Akufo-Addo has demonstrated a high level of commitment in fighting the galamsey menace which has caused more harm than good to Ghana.

"Even though the Government has not yet eliminated the galamsey menace completely, there has been improvement on the fight against it in the country, stressing that Nana Addo's Government Has fought Galamsey more than any other government"

Lawyer Buaben's comment follows a statement by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) that President Akufo-Addo has “betrayed” government’s fight against illegal mining after freeing a Chinese kingpin, Aisha Huang.

Speaking on Okay FM’s Ade Akye Abia Programme with host Kwami Nkrumah Tikesie, he stated that it is important to do genuine business but it is equally important to protect our natural resources and that has been the core mandate of President Akufo Addo’s vision on the fight against galamsey.

“Our problem has always been with those without permit (Galamsey or illegal mining) and those with permit but do not care about our water bodies… even though we cannot stop illegal mining, it is important to manage and monitor their activities and that is the reason why the President has introduced the drone system to monitor their operations", he stated.

The government did not only fight against galamsey, but have trained over 3,000 people in mining the right way in Ghana, 4000 youth in oil palm business and about 100 NaBCo recruits in using technology to trace illegal miners.

I must say that Nana Addo is not here to collapse small scale mining but rather to help protect our natural resources”, he stressed.

Lawyer Buaben Asamoah who also doubles as the Member of Parliament for Adentan Constituency, also revealed that when it comes to the fight against galamsey, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has no credibility to talk about it as during their tenure in office did nothing to stop the menace.

“NDC has no credibility to talk about the issue of galamsey in this country because during their time, they did nothing to stop…in fact they even need to apologize to the good people of Ghana for allowing illegal miners to destroy our water bodies..." he added.

He maintained that the galamsey queen, Aisha Huang was already in the galamsey business throughout NDC’s tenure of office until she was deported to her country by the NPP government. “This woman did a whole lot of things during their tenure in office but they did nothing to stop her...so why are they pretending?”

President Akufo Addo has taken this risk which in the long run might affect some of his candidates in most of the galamsey communities in 2020 election and has therefore appealed to Ghanaians to help the President  fight against the galamsey menace in the country.