Ace Anan Ankomah, Convener of Occupy Ghana, has disclosed that President Akufo-Addo has disregarded multiple letters sent by the organisation regarding the illegal mining crisis, including a recent correspondence dated September 10.
Since 2016, Occupy Ghana has persistently raised alarms about the detrimental effects of galamsey on the environment and water resources in Ghana through formal communications, yet their warnings have fallen on deaf ears.
In an interview with the media, Ankomah expressed his profound disappointment, stating that the escalating situation could have been alleviated had the government heeded their recommendations.
He underscored the urgent need for the government to acknowledge the gravity of the issue and take meaningful action.
Mr Ankomah cautioned that the unchecked proliferation of illegal mining is poised to trigger ecological, food, and health crises within the country.
He emphasised that failure to address this pressing matter could lead to dire consequences for the environment and the well-being of citizens.
Advocating for decisive measures, Mr Ankomah called for the confiscation of lands currently utilised for galamsey operations.
He believes that such actions are essential to prevent further environmental degradation and to safeguard communities from the adverse impacts of illegal mining activities.
Mr Ankomah urged the government to act swiftly in addressing the illegal mining crisis. He warned that without immediate intervention, the nation risks facing catastrophic repercussions that could affect generations to come.
“In 2022 alone, we wrote to the president [Akufo-Addo] every week, for eight weeks. On 10th September 2024, we repeated our call. But let’s start from 28th September 2022, we wrote an open letter to the president, saying that this galamsey thing is a problem, put your foot down.”
“3rd October 2022, we wrote a reminder one. This is the one that asked that they declare a state of emergency. 10th October 2022, the next week, we wrote reminder two, pointing out the imminent ecological and food disasters.”
“17th October 2022, the next week, we wrote a reminder three, this is where we advocated for confiscating of galamsey lands. 24th October 2022, we wrote reminder 4, in which we specifically asked the government to take action on the Akonta Mining issue. We were specific, no response, no action.”
“31st October 2022, reminder five, which we call reminder of reminders, no response. 7th November 2022, where we pointed to an imminent health disaster. When we pointed to what we had seen about deformed children and everything, no response.”
“The last one is charity begins at home, November 16, 2022, they didn’t respond. So, our last one, we repeated our call to halt it, which is 10th September 2024. This is just our engagement with the presidency.”
Source: Richard Nana Appiah Kubi/Ahotoronline.com
