Govt must ban import of mercury if it's serious about fight against galamsey – Abronye DC

The Bono Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Kwame Baffoe, a.k.a. Abronye DC, has said that the government is failing in the fight against illegal mining because it has not stopped the factors that encourage it. Abronye said that one of the main things that fosters 'galamsey' is the easy access to mercury in Ghana. He added that if the government is serious about fighting illegal mining, it has to ban the import of mercury. “We say we want to stop galamsey, but people have easy access to mercury, which is used for galamsey. Without mercury, illegal mining will cease. Where do they get the mercury from? Does it fall from the sky for them to go and collect it? “We import the mercury from other countries. So, if we really want to stop galamsey, one of the main things we can do is to make sure that mercury is not imported into this country. “If mercury continues to be imported into the country, whether we like it or not, illegal mining will continue. So, if the lands minister is serious about fighting galamsey, he should make sure import of mercury into Ghana is curtailed,” he said in Twi. He also said that the soldiers and other people who have been tasked with stopping the menace are not taking it seriously because they know nothing will happen to them if they fail. Speaking in a Neat FM interview monitored by GhanaWeb, the NPP regional chairman added that the government should make sure the taskforce charged with stopping the menace swears an oath by the gods. “I said that from day one, the taskforce to fight galamsey should be made to swear by the gods. I said this because the members of the committee that was set in 2013 to fight galamsey have all of a sudden become rich. The committee that was set by this government has also been dissolved. "Soldiers are sent to protect water bodies, but the waters keep getting polluted, and nothing happens to them,” he noted. Watch the interview in the video below: Watch the latest episode of The Lowdown below: IB/BOG