Dennis Miracles Aboagye, the spokesperson for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia’s campaign and the New Patriotic Party’s 2024 presidential nominee, has vowed to stage protests against the government should it decide to outlaw small-scale mining.
Mr. Aboagye believes that the arguments for outlawing small-scale mining are not in the best interests of the nation, but rather political.
Speaking on Joy News on Thursday, September 19, he stated that certain political groups are interested in the calls.
“The proposal they are making is not in the interest of the water bodies. They are making it in the interest of their own political affiliation,” he said.
He made it clear that he disagreed with the proposal to outlaw small-scale mining, arguing that it was the wrong course of action given its prior failures. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do to outlaw small-scale mining because, for starters, we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work.”
While acknowledging that small-scale mining has a negative impact on the environment, he made it clear that not all small-scale miners are doing so illegally, therefore it would be unjust to forbid them from working.
He also said:
“There are people who are legitimately doing small-scale mining. It has nothing to do with galamsey, then we should go and ban Newmont and ban Gold Fields and Anglo Gold Ashanti and all that? But where Anglo Gold Ashanti and Newmont and co. are mining what has it got to do with the discussions we are having?” he added, “Indeed, our water bodies have been affected, indeed galamsey is destroying the water bodies.”
“Do you know what happens when you ban small-scale mining? There are tens of thousands of people who will lose their jobs. If my government bans small-scale mining, I will demonstrate against them.”
He further contended that eliminating Samuel Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, from his position, as some have proposed, would not address the threat posed by illicit mining.
