{"id":114945,"date":"2026-02-11T17:13:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114945"},"modified":"2026-02-11T17:13:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T17:13:21","slug":"unfortunate-akwatia-mp-reacts-to-joynews-galamsey-expose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=114945","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Unfortunate\u2019 \u2014 Akwatia MP reacts to JoyNews galamsey expos\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Member of Parliament for Akwatia Constituency, Bernard Bediako Baidoo, has expressed worry over a recent JoyNews Hotline Documentary titled \u201cA Tax for Galamsey,\u201d which exposed alleged illegal taxing of galamsey operations in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.<\/p>\n

In an interview on Nhyira FM\u2019s \u201cKro Yi Mu Nsem,\u201d Mr Baidoo described the practices as unfortunate.<\/p>\n

He finds it disturbing that the district assembly is taxing equipment the government has banned, specifically mentioning \u2018chanfang\u2019 machines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate because the documentary shows they\u2019re collecting tax on mining equipment, including chanfana machines. We all know the government has banned chanfang machines, so why are they collecting tax on something that\u2019s been banned?\u201d he told host, Barima Kofi Dawson.<\/p>\n

The MP says the government\u2019s interest to investigate the expos\u00e9 following a petition to the President indicates President Mahama\u2019s reset agenda is yielding results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should commend President Mahama for quickly ordering the sector minister to investigate the Galamsey Expos\u00e9. Similar cases have surfaced before, but nothing was done, so this demonstrates that the reset agenda is on course, and Mahama is a savior of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is confident President Mahama will not spare anyone found guilty after the investigation, as he has been warning appointees against getting involved in such acts.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Mahama has consistently warned his appointees against involvement in such practices, making it clear that no one will be protected if implicated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Baidoo stressed that the issue at hand should not be politicized.<\/p>\n

According to him, the investigation should cover the entire Assembly\u2019s management, not just the DCE.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the documentary, it was revealed that the money collected from these miners went into the Assembly\u2019s account, so it\u2019s not the District Chief Executive who is using his own task force to collect the money and keep it for himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

He commended Joy News for the investigative work, stating that exposing such issues will help draw the government\u2019s attention, prompting necessary actions and reforms to address the problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Member of Parliament for Akwatia Constituency, Bernard Bediako Baidoo, has expressed worry over a recent JoyNews Hotline Documentary titled “A Tax for Galamsey,” which exposed alleged illegal taxing of galamsey operations in the Amansie Central District of the Ashanti Region.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1358,16737,1883,117,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-akwatia-mp","category-galamsey-expose","category-national","category-news","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114945\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}