Minority Want To Hold Akufo-Addo Accountable For Missing Excavators

The Minority in Parliament has officially urged Parliament to hold President Akufo-Addo ultimately responsible for the scandalous spiriting away of excavators and other things seized from illegal miners as part of government’s clampdown on the practice.
 
In an address on the floor of the House today, MP for Tamale North, Alhassan Saibu Suhiyini, said the President should be held responsible because he led the declaration of the fight against ‘galamsey’ which has turned out to be an exercise to usurp mines and excavators belonging to the galamseyers.
 
 
“What is disappointing, Mr. Speaker is that according to an officer of the International Conservation Group AU Chapter, Daniel Kwamena, the ban only pushed small scale miners to work within the protected Atiwa Forest,” Hon. Suhiyini noted.
 
Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrissu, also challenged claims by Local Government Minister, Hajia Alima Mahama, that only 34 of the excavators were missing and that the public attention that has erupted on the issue is due to the fact that just a few of them have not been retrieved.
 
According to Hon. Iddrissu, this cannot be the case since it is well known that more than 300 of the excavators have vanished.
 
The official request to Parliament to hold the President accountable is coming just days after the NDC had announced that it will petition the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guiterez, to remove President Akufo-Addo as one of two Chairpersons on the UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group.
 
According to the party’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, the President has failed to live up to appointment as he presides over the proliferation of galamsey by members of his government and party.