Former President John Dramani Mahama has said that when he is elected president, all those who are into illegal mining activities popularly called ‘galamsey’, and have been arrested would be given their freedom.
In an engagement with a section of the members of the NDC, the former president pledged that he would ensure that those arrested for galamsey would be freed and given another chance to continue with their illegal mining activities.
“Eye Zu! When we win power, all those arrested for engaging in galamsey would be given amnesty for them to come back. We believe that whatever law they flouted, they’re remorseful so we shall free them and give them another chance to work as galamseyers” Mahama promised.
Discussions on the fight against galamsey have heated up following the re-arrest of Chinese galamsey queen, Aisha Huang, who has found her way back into the country after she was thought to have been deported to China.
The former president, in an interview he had with TV3, has chastised the Akufo-Addo administration for failing to deal decisively with galamsey.
Meanwhile, the same person is seen in this video promising to liberate all those who have flouted our mining laws and jailed, adding that he would let them go back to do the illegal mining activities.
In the run-up to the 2020 elections, the then candidate Mahama sponsored the likes of Dr. Tony Aubynn, Kwaku Boahen and Michael Kwadwo Peprah into the galamsey prone areas to urge them to vote for him as he would allow them to do their galamsey if he wins the elections. Consistently, the former president has been encouraging people to engage in galamsey.
Already, this government has spent millions of dollars in its attempts to fight galamsey. This, coming from the former President goes a long way to confirm that he does not support the fight against illegal mining activities.
