Don't reduce galamsey fight to defining repatriation or deportation – NPP MP

Update: The original publication titled 'Don't reduce galamsey fight to defining repatriation or deportation – NPP MP blasts Oppong-Nkrumah' has been ammended to reflect what the MP said. The MP was not responding to the Minister of Information. GhanaWeb apologises for the inconveniences the error has caused him.

Member of Parliament for Afigya Kwabre

Read full articleNorth, Collins Adomako-Mensah, has said that the country’s quest to stamp out illegal small-scale mining activities popularly known as “galamsey” has moved beyond the definition of deportation or repatriation.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana on September 14, Adomako-Mensah narrated how he and his friends were asked to vacate a seat at a pub for Chinese nationals to occupy.

With his experience at the pub, the member of Parliament’s Finance Committee said the fight against galamsey is now about the dignity and sovereignty of the country and its citizens alike.

“Three weeks ago, I was in Kumasi and myself and some few friends decided to go to a pub to have a drink. 10 minutes after we sat looking through the menu, one of the gentlemen approached us and said we have to get up from where we are seated and move to another place.

“I said if it’s about cost, we are prepared to take care of it. He said no, you have to move and sit somewhere else. They know [I am an honorable MP]. After a little argument, I decided to just move because it was creating a scene.

“10 minutes after we moved, some Chinese guys entered and they were treated with all the courtesies. This galamsey thing, it has gone beyond a definition about repatriation and deportation. It is about our dignity now. It is about our sovereignty. It is getting totally out of hand.

“And you listen to radio and the argument is about a woman [Aisha Huang]. A woman who has eluded governments – a whole machinery. Let’s situate the argument well.

“It is not about definition of deportation or repatriation. It is a serious matter. I am a Member of Parliament, I was sacked from a seat just to allow Chinese people to sit,” the legislator said.

Collins Adomako-Mensah added that affluent people in the society were behind galamsey activities which have become rife in certain parts of the country. He lamented that Ghana may soon begin to import water by 2030 if the galamsey menace is not nipped.

“The videos we see, the young Ghanaian guys in the pit…which of them can afford GH₵800,000 excavator? There are high-ranking people in Ghana who are fueling this particular exercise. When this discussion is going on, they are just in their houses and in their rooms and they are just watching.

“They are just enjoying the debate around Aisha Huang ... go down there, they are still digging. I was reading a report they said by 2030 we might have to import water as a country,” Adomako-Mensah bemoaned.

The MP continued that “we need to be very careful. Very very careful with this issue about galamsey. The way it is been approached and the politicization of it, if we are not careful we lose sight, we lose focus. We can never get to the bottom of this if we begin our discussions and continue our discussions on radio and television about NPP and NDC”.

His comment comes on the back of President Akufo-Addo’s purported uncertainty on whether Chinese galamsey kingpin, Aisha Huang, was deported or she fled the country and the subsequent attempt by Information Minister Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah to water down the import of the president’s statement by insisting on the difference between deportation and repatriation.

In an interview on Stone City Radio in Ho during his tour of the Volta Region, President Akufo-Addo said: "… I am not still sure whether she was, in fact, deported or whether she fled the country the first time and has now come back or whatever. There still seems to be some uncertainty about it."

Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah in an attempt to explain the president’s comment said it was a figure of speech and the most important thing was that Aisha Huang was repatriated in 2018 contrary to earlier reports that she was deported.


You can also watch this episode of People & Places here:



DS/SARA