Kate Gyamfua’s excavators were burnt because she criticized the Roads Minister - NDC alleges

A statement issued by Mr Darlas Ampomah Williams, Regional Communication Officer of the NDC on Monday, 16 May 2021, said the action of the galamsey fighters, in the case of Ms Gyamfua’s company, is a proxy personal vendetta for publicly calling out the Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Kwesi Amoako-Atta, who also happens to be the MP for the Atiwa West constituency, for his discriminatory fixing of roads in the region.

“It is public knowledge how Ms Kate Gyamfua has bemoaned the horrible state of other roads in the Eastern Region apart from the hometowns of the President and his cousin, the Roads Minister and personally called him out to act without discrimination”, the statement said.

“This is a few weeks before her company's equipment were burnt down”, the NDC observed.

READ THE FULL STATEMENT BY THE NDC

NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS

EASTERN REGIONAL SECRETARIAT

AKUFO-ADDO MUST BE SINCERE IN THE GALAMSEY FIGHT

The menace of illegal mining (galamsey) is in no doubt polluting and destroying our water bodies and forest reserves and, as condemned by the national leadership of the party, the Eastern regional branch of the National Democratic Congress also condemns it in no uncertain terms. Inasmuch as we condemn galamsey, we also condemn the way and manner in which the new anti-galamsey task force set up by President Akufo-Addo is fighting the menace.

We believe that such a national endeavour should be done in a transparent, accountable and sincere manner, with a visible chain of custody of equipment and other evidence.

For example, the random, irregular burning of excavators found on mining sites by the task force, is not a sustainable way and must cease forthwith.

Such an approach, akin to mob justice, is open to abuses and presents itself as a tool in the hands of powerful political entities in the pursuit of personal vendetta. For example, it has come to the attention of the Eastern Regional Secretariat of the NDC that the new task force against illegal mining burnt a number of excavators, 1 bulldozer belonging to Xtra-Gold Mining Ltd. at Akyem Akropong in the Atiwa West District.

This is where Hon. Amoako-Atta, the cousin of the President Akufo-Addo and Minister of Roads and Highways is MP.

It is also instructive to note that it has emerged that Ms Kate Gyemfua, the National Women's Organiser of the NPP, is designated as the General Manager of Xtra-Gold.

It is public knowledge how Ms Kate Gyamfua has bemoaned the horrible state of other roads in the Eastern Region apart from the hometowns of the President and his cousin, the Roads Minister and personally called him out to act without discrimination. This is a few weeks before her company's equipment were burnt down.

While we may not be interested in such petty internal squabbles, we are concerned that a similar pattern that led to the failure of the initial Operation Vanguard is unfolding.

Kwesi Amoako Atta, Roads Minister Pulse Ghana

A number of questions are being asked:

1. The mining activities of Kate Gyemfua and other national and regional executives are publicly known in the region. How come only Kate Gyamfua has been a victim? Will such a scapegoating strategy help fight the menace? 2. What happens after the burning of the equipment? Mining activities are socio-material. The equipment don’t automatically move. There are humans who moved them and benefit from the activities. So far, materials are being burnt down, we are yet to see the arrest and prosecution of Ms Kate Gyamfua if, indeed, she and her company are in defiance of presidential directives. When will this happen?

3. We have sighted documents from Xtra-Gold that suggests their activities are legit, even as recent as this year. Is this action by the anti-galamsey team part of a conspiracy to undeservedly propitiate "judgment debt" from a deliberate illegality from state actors?

4. Has the supposed fight against galamsey become nepotistic to the extent that perceived critics of Akufo-Addo and his family members are penalised using state-sanctioned operations such as "operation Halt"?

This and many lingering questions call for an immediate suspension of the activities of the task force in the region and investigations conducted into this single event to inform a proper operational guide for the taskforce to insulate them from political manipulation. As it stands now, the current supposed fight is more symbolic than functional and it’s bound to fail just like the previous symbolic attempts.

The President, his officers, family members and NPP party galamsey aficionados are only leveraging the genuine anger of Ghanaians and collective resolve to deal with the menace, to protect their galamsey kingpins, while using a few of them who have fallen out with them, as scapegoats. This must stop immediately!!

Signed;

Darlas Ampomah Williams Regional Communication Officer