We're Tired With Your Failed Promises - Small Scale Miners To Nana Addo

Concerned Small Scale Miners Association (CSSMA) has described a promise made by President Nana Akufo Addo in lifting the ban on small scale mining activities in the country soon as ‘deceit’ and ‘hoax’ and will treat it with contempt, been not the first time hearing such promise.

According to them, the six month ban imposed on mining activities in the country in March 2017 to end illegal mining in the country was giving an extension without any just reasons by the government, a situation they complained their lives have been negatively impacted following the decision to stop their mining activities.

President Akufo-Addo on Monday, 18th June, 2018, made at the sensitization workshop for traditional and religious leaders and stakeholders on the elimination of illegal mining in Ghana, held at the Accra International Conference Centre.

Shortly after assuming power, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) declared a ban on small-scale mining as part of efforts to fight the activities of illegal mining, popularly called ‘galamsey’, in March 2017.

In spite of the considerable gains made by the Operation Vanguard’ task force, the government extended the ban by three more months, taking the period of moratorium to the end of January 2018, but the ban is yet to be lifted.

Spokesperson for CSSMA, Stephen Kofi Arhin, in an interview with Otec News’ Evans Agyei Sika on Tuesday, June 19, 2018, said there have been several promises made by both the President and the Lands and Natural Resources minister, John Peter Amewu, to lift the ban but all in vain, a case they believed the government is playing with their lives.

“This is not the first time we are hearing this from the government, it started in March 2108, then in October the same year, then in January 2018, and we believe the government is deceiving us and playing with our existence, most of us have died because of the ban due to their inability to pay their banks loans because of inactivity,”

“Their fake promises are angering us, we will show the government that they can’t take us for fools by mounting a demonstration on Monday, June 25, 2018, in Kumasi to express our displeasure on their fake promises, which is the only language the government understands, we will longer believe the government again,” he angrily said.