Galamsey Brouhaha: ‘We Can’t Ban Small-scale Mining; That Is Unfair’ – NPP MP

Dr. Nana Ayew Afriye, the Member of Parliament for Effiduase-Asokore, has justified his comment regarding galamsey which has invited harsh criticisms.

The parliamentarian at a campaign event on September 27 told the gathering that the ruling New Patriotic Party will not ban galamsey, insisting the galamsey that is bad and should be stopped is done along the water bodies.

His comment was in reaction to calls for President Nana Addo to impose a ban on small-scale mining.

The proponents of this call believe stopping all small-scale mining activities is the first step to ending galamsey.

But Dr. Ayew Afriyie says his comment was misrepresented in the media, hence in an interview with Eyewitness News on September 30, he sought to set the record straight.

“What the TV3 people did was that when I said we will not stop today or tomorrow, they actually truncated and doctored it out and then made it look like all I said was we are not doing anything about galamsey and we will not stop today or tomorrow. That is a misrepresentation, it put me out of context.”

“That is why many people will wonder if Ayew Afriye will stand on principle and as I speak with you I still stand on the basic principle that there are irresponsible small-scale mining and responsible small-scale mining”, he stated.

He however maintained that “we cannot put a ban on small-scale mining, that is not fair”.

“That is to say that in the southern belt, along the coast, in the river bodies and the Volta Lake people are doing irresponsible fishing. They use DDT, and dynamite and we are aware but the state agency is after the illegal ones does that mean that we would ban all fishing in the south?”, he argued.

Source: Ghmessenger.com