Majority leader and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, has revealed that he has become a victim of the activities of illegal small scale miners.
According to him, illegal miners have cut off normal access to his farm located in Assin Nyaduam in the Central Region.
Speaking at a press conference in Parliament earlier this week, the Suame MP further disclosed that his refusal to sell his land to some persons who believed that his land had gold led to them digging a trench around his farm.
“Farmlands are going. I have a farm, a cocoa farm and a teak farm at Assin Nyaduam, in the constituency of Ken Ohene Agyapong. Because they had discovered some gold in my farm, so I should sell it to them.
“I said I wouldn’t. You know what they did? They went and dug around the farm so you can’t enter the farm… Now I can’t enter my own farm, if I have to go there I must go by boat. Is that what we want to do to ourselves? Please, reality check, let’s do what is right,” he stressed.
On the subject of burning galamsey excavators, the Majority Leader backed the position of the government and President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo despite opposition by the Minority Leader who also spoke at the press conference.
“Within the past 10 years, all thanks to galamsey, we have lost 500,000 hectares of forest cover. Today as we speak, the forest cover of this country is less than 600,000. Where are we going as a country, and we think these activities should not be stopped?
“I beg to disagree, honourable minority leader, I beg to disagree (that we shouldn’t burn excavators). We must confront reality. We cannot go on like this,” he added.
