NAPO Promises To Return Seized Excavators To Small-Scale Miners If NPP Wins Election 2024

• The New Patriotic Party's running mate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has assured small-scale miners if his party wins, their seized excavators will be returned
• He said the NPP was committed to ensuring that small-scale miners maintained their livelihoods to support their families
• He said a future NPP government would efficiently and effectively regulate the mining industry to ensure that small-scale miners do not devastate the environment

The vice presidential candidate for the New Patriotic Party, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has promised that if the NPP wins the 2024 election, all confiscated excavators will be returned.

The ruling government, during its crackdown on the illegal mining menace, had seized hundreds of excavators belonging to illegal miners across the country.

According to the NPP running mate, these excavators will be returned by the future NPP government to encourage responsible small-scale mining in the country.

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“Crisis proportion”: Organised Labour threatens to shutdown country over galamsey

NAPO said that despite calls for a total ban on small-scale mining amidst growing concerns about the increasing galamsey menace, the NPP flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has no intention of implementing such a measure.

Citinewsroom reported that he told chiefs and people of Prestea Huni Valley and Mpohor in the Western Region that the NPP was committed to protecting the livelihood of small-scale miners as long as those miners strictly adhered to mining and environmental laws.

He said a future NPP government would effectively and efficiently regulate the system to ensure that all mining laws are heeded and their activities do not harm the environment.

NAPO said banning small-scale mining would cause many Ghanaians to lose their livelihoods, which could have severe consequences.

“We will give all seized excavators to you so you can do your work peacefully. This will help everyone to get money to fend for themselves and also for the community to develop. Dr Mahamudu Bawumia will not collapse small-scale mining,” he said.

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NAPO dismisses radical approach to ending galamsey

Earlier, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh dismissed calls for the shooting and killing of people engaged in illegal mining.

NAPO said the suggestion cannot be seen as a panacea for addressing the galamsey menace in the country.

In a video that has since gone viral, NAPO said the opposition National Democratic Congress is being hypocritical about their stance on the galamsey menace.

He said their support for a shoot-and-kill tactic to end galamsey is inhumane and inappropriate and runs contrary to earlier promises they made to mining communities to free galamsey miners who the ruling government had arrested.

He said the NPP government will not support such a brutal approach.

NAPO calls for peaceful elections

YEN.com.gh reported that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) running mate, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, has warned those planning to disrupt the 2024 general election to refrain from doing so.

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NAPO says anybody who foments trouble in the upcoming elections will not be spared

According to him, any acts of violence or disruptive behaviour before, during or after the elections will not go unpunished.

Addressing electorates at a party campaign rally in the Asunafo South Constituency of the Ahafo Region, NAPO urged electorates and party faithful to refrain from engaging in behaviour that may affect the peace and stability of the country.

Proofread by Berlinda Entsie, journalist and copy editor at YEN.com.gh

Source: YEN.com.gh