Richard Ahiagbah, the Communications Director of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of contributing to the ongoing galamsey crisis by leveraging illegal mining activities for electoral gains.
In an interview on Face to Face on Channel One TV, Ahiagbah argued that the NDC cannot absolve itself of responsibility for the current state of galamsey, in Ghana. "I think that the NDC cannot absolve itself of responsibility of where we are," he stated.
Ahiagbah recalled the 2020 election period, alleging that the NDC used promises of liberating galamsey operations as a campaign strategy. "You heard in 2020 when we were doing the election, they were leveraging galamsey as a means to winning the election.
They were peddling galamsey to people telling them to vote for us when we come we will liberate you to do it," he said.
He warned of the potential consequences had the NDC won the 2020 election, suggesting that the situation would be far worse. "Imagine that the NDC won the 2020 election.
Can you imagine after they had made promises to people that, vote for John Mahama when he wins the election and comes back you can start galamseying.
Can you imagine the state we will be in today?
It will be a much devastating situation," Ahiagbah remarked.
Ahiagbah also claimed that NDC officials were actively involved in promoting galamsey, promising to facilitate illegal mining operations in exchange for votes. "We have people on record from the NDC, officers of the party going about showing people who will head the mineral commission to facilitate galamseying for them on the altar that they will vote for the NDC," he alleged.