“Government Official came to beg me not to expose those doing Galamsey”-Asantehene reveals
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The Asantehene, Otumfour Osei Tutu II, has disclosed that the government tried to sway him from giving a speech at the Ashanti Regional Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining in Kumasi.
On Wednesday, May 12, he spoke at the region’s first conference, claiming that a government team had come to see him just 24 hours before the event to implore him on what to say in his keynote address.
According to Otumfour, the entourage led by Abu Jinapor, the Ashanti Regional Minister and Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, advised him to be careful not to say something that would hurt the government’s popularity.
The Asantehene, on the other hand, bemoaned the government’s partiality in dealing with the galamsey issue.
He insisted that a large number of those present at the event are aware of those who are involved in galamsey, which is all the more cause for the government and chiefs to take the battle seriously.
The program marked the start of the Regional Consultative Dialogue on Small Scale Mining, which aims to bring together mining industry stakeholders to discuss successful ways to ensure small-scale mining does not damage the country’s water bodies or forest reserves.
The Regional Dialogue comes after President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo opened the National Dialogue on Small-Scale Mining in Accra from April 14 to 15, 2021.
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