Government considers galamsey as terrorism — Kwakye Ofosu

Spokesperson to President John Dramani Mahama and Minister of State in charge of Government Communications, Felix Kwakye Ofosu, says the government is ready to confront illegal mining—known locally as galamsey—head-on.

He described the menace as equivalent to terrorism, insisting that the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government is not taking it lightly.

“First of all, let me say that I understand fully the anxiety of the Ghanaian public because illegal mining is a terrible activity. In fact, we in government consider it equal to terrorism,” he said.

“So the same way we treat persons who seek to violate our territorial integrity and do harm to our citizens is the same way we perceive those engagements,” Mr. Kwakye Ofosu stated on TV3’s KeyPoints programme on Saturday, May 10.

His comments came in response to concerns raised about the NDC government’s performance in tackling galamsey in its first 120 days in office.

Some critics have rated the administration below expectations.

Addressing these claims, the government spokesperson clarified that President Mahama never promised to end illegal mining within 120 days.

“It’s important that specificity is considered in the discussion of the 120-day promise. We made specific commitments within that timeframe, and we must be held to those,” he said.

“Of course, things were also said on the campaign platform. Those also matter. So we should be having two sets of discussions: one on what is documented in our manifesto, which the public can access, and another on what was said on campaign platforms,” he added.