Respect Mahama, he's a statesman - Kwaku Baako chastises Minister

Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide Newspaper, Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako Jnr, has condemned Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu for calling ex-President John Mahama a conman.

According to the veteran journalist, the comments by Mr. Amewu was completely out of order and must be condemned since Mr. Mahama has served the country as a president hence must be given the due respect.

Speaking at the National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) unity walk in Kumasi on Saturday, Former President Mahama described the government’s approach in the anti-galamsey campaign as counterproductive.

He stated, “…it is true that if we don’t do something about it, it will destroy the environment. But we need to apply wisdom because we’ve chased young people involved in illegal small-scale mining with soldiers in the past in this country, but it didn’t work.”

However, in a scathing response to Mr. Mahama, the Lands Minister who labelled the Former President as a 'conman' called on small-scale miners and the general public to disregard the comments, stating that he [Mahama], did not make any meaningful impact on the sector in his four years in charge of the country.

Speaking on Metro TV Wednesday, Mr. Baako condemned the minister’s statement describing it as unfortunate and “completely out of order”.



He said; “Mahama is a former president and a statesman; for that matter, for a minister to call him a conman, I think it’s completely out of order. He is a statesman and should be accorded as such,”



“President Mahama was only playing on the emotions of the galamseyers; both the small-scale miners and the galamseyers. I knew at some point, he was referring to the small-scale miners and at another point it was illegal miners,” he added