The Member of Parliament for Effiduase Asokore and the middle belt campaign coordinator for the governing NPP, Dr Ayew Afriyie has been a subject of public discourse recently.

A comment he made on illegal mining also known as 'galamsey' on September 27, during the launch of "Bawumia 2024 Campaign Volunteers" has generated intense public assessment on whether the government is committed to the fight against illegal mining. "They are in Accra deliberately confusing those engaged in mining in water bodies and small-scale mining.

The NDC has brought people from Togo and Burkina Faso to do illegal mining, but we are not going after them.

They realised we were winning the seats, so they decided to go and import foreigners and they advised them to mine in our rivers.