A member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Communications team, Hamza Suhuyini Sayibu, has refuted media claims suggesting that President John Dramani Mahama promised to end illegal mining (galamsey) within his first three months in office.
“We never made a promise that we were going to end the galamsey menace in a matter of weeks or three months, we never said so,” he stated during an interview on TV3’s New Day on Wednesday.
He emphasized that President Mahama has always advocated for a sustainable and holistic approach to tackling illegal mining.
“In every step of the way, President Mahama made his stance clear against galamsey and indicated that just like we confronted the issue of dumsor under him, we needed a sustainable and holistic approach if indeed, as a country, we are committed to resolving galamsey.”
Addressing allegations that the NDC made a 120-day pledge to end galamsey, Sayibu dismissed them as false.
“It is not for nothing that if you go through our first 120-day pledge that we made, you do not see anywhere in those 26 promises where President Mahama has said that ‘I will end illegal mining in a matter of 120 days.’”
He argued that the NDC understood the complexities of the galamsey fight and deliberately avoided making unrealistic promises.
“We could have said that because we knew that the fight is tedious, and we knew that for us to succeed, there was the need for us to put in place measures that could be sustainable in the fight. That is why we did not make that promise.”
