'Galamsey in Ghana is like cocaine in Mexico and Colombia', it’s a whole cartel – Presidential Staffer

The Director of Local Government Services at the Office of the President, Dennis Miracles Aboagye has said the fight against galamsey is a whole cartel that can’t be fought easily.

“Galamsey in Ghana is like cocaine in Mexico and Colombia, it is a whole cartel . . . it is like a spirit possession . . . it needs many years of hard work, many years of dedication, many years of education and years of trying to cause attitudinal change in the people in this areas, without these things it does not matter how much fight we put out in Galamsey we will not win,” he said.

According to him prior to election 2020 the government realized it was losing the fight against the canker.

He said the NDC capitalized on the fight against galamsey and took political advantage of it.

“It is a fact, there are videos, there are audios and there are texts, the National leadership of the NDC went to mining sites and into galamsey pits and took videos telling ‘galamseyers’ they won’t stop them when they come into power,” he said, pointing that Kweku Boahen and Dr. Tony Aubynn were all present in the video.

He said even ex-president John Dramani Mahama on his campaign tour gave them assurances that all illegal miners arrested would be set free and allowed to work.

He said as a result of this the NPP lost woefully in the mining communities due to this action of the NDC Executives.

“What we need in the fight against galamsey is not NDC writing a petition to CHRAJ, what we need is NDC going back to the people and telling them galamsey is evil and whether you vote for us or not we will stop galamsey".