‘Drink from Birim River if you’ve tackled galamsey’ – Mahama dares Akufo-Addo

Former President John Mahama has dared President Nana Akufo-Addo to drink from the Birim River if he has indeed tackled illegal mining in the country.

Mr Mahama was reacting to President Akufo-Addo’s recent comment that he has sanitized the mining sector and that his fight against illegal mining remains unchanged.

Addressing a rally at Manso Nkwanta in the Ashanti Region, on December 1, 2020, President Akufo-Addo noted that ” I will not support illegal mining which will destroy the environment. My decision remains the same, where I am on this fight remains unchanged.”

But in an interview with Kwame Minkah and Mugabe Maase on Power FM, Mr Mahama mocked President Akufo-Addo’s promise and said if he was committed to fighting illegal mining as he said yesterday, then he should not find it difficult from drinking from Birim River whose source is in the president’s home region – the Eastern Region.

“If he [Akufo-Addo] says he has tackled galamsey, I am daring him, he should get a cup and fetch water from Birim river and drink it,” Mr Mahama stated.

To him, illegal mining has not been dealt with by the Akufo-Addo government because the river bodies have been heavily polluted than when the NDC was leaving power in 2017.

“Go and see our river bodies today… Go and see Birim and Ankobra… Today the water bodies are looking like coffee because it is the NPP executives who are now doing the illegal mining with impunity,” he said.