Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Elikem Kotoko, has criticised the previous administration’s approach to illegal mining, arguing that the ban on galamsey under former President Akufo-Addo not only failed but worsened the situation.
Speaking on Channel One TV, he insisted that there was “no single improvement” in the state of Ghana’s water bodies during the period the ban was in force.
“At the time President Akufo-Addo placed a ban on illegal mining, that was when the illegality continued more. So there was no single improvement of our water bodies even recovering under any circumstance. Not at all,” he stated.
Kotoko challenged the narrative that the ban was an effective environmental intervention, describing such claims as misleading.
“Let us not pretend to embellish as though there was an effort. We all saw what happened in this country at the time the ban was placed,” he remarked.
He revealed that the government continued issuing mining licenses during the ban, undermining its stated purpose.
“At the time the ban was placed was even when they were issuing more licenses. Every single license given, even be it prospecting, whatever, so long as the persons felt there was something written there as a license, they were engaged in all of this,” he said.
Kotoko further questioned how gold production rose during the period if the ban had indeed been enforced.
“Why is it the case that at the time the ban was placed was when our gold production rose? How could there have been an improvement at that time? No single such thing,” he stressed.
