{"id":96035,"date":"2025-09-27T11:05:01","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96035"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:05:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:05:01","slug":"npps-galamsey-crackdown-cost-us-parliamentary-seats-in-key-mining-areas-kwadwo-poku","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96035","title":{"rendered":"NPP\u2019s galamsey crackdown cost us parliamentary seats in key mining areas \u2013 Kwadwo Poku"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost several parliamentary seats in mining areas because of the party\u2019s strong crackdown on illegal mining, also known as galamsey.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews<\/strong>\u2019 Newsfile on Saturday, September 27, Mr Poku said that while President Nana Akufo-Addo\u2019s government took bold measures to stop illegal mining, the move came at a political cost.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2017, when Nana Addo came into office, he suspended all small-scale mining across the country, both legal and illegal. The suspension lasted approximately 20 months. Operation Vanguard was also deployed with 400 military and police officers to enforce the ban,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

According to him, these measures, though well-intentioned, hit mining communities hard. \u201cThe mining communities were crying that, look, that\u2019s our livelihood. They are not getting money. People kept saying there was a cascading effect, and traders and others in those areas all suffered,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr Poku pointed out that ahead of the 2020 elections, the then-opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) capitalised on the frustrations of affected communities. \u201cIn places like Juaboso, where there were 54 polling stations, the NPP lost all of them. We also lost Upper Denkyira West, a seat we had always held, because the galamsey people were going around giving people money to vote against us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said that the government\u2019s tough stance directly contributed to these electoral defeats. \u201cNana Addo said he would stake his presidency on fighting galamsey. But when we went to the polls in 2020, we lost the majority of our seats in the mining areas,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Mr Poku further said that while the NPP government tried to enforce the laws, the NDC gave voters the impression that they would take a more relaxed approach if elected. \u201cThe NDC told the people, vote for us, and we will not stop your mining. That carried forward into 2024,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On the current government\u2019s record, he criticised the lack of effective action. \u201cIn nine months of the Mahama administration, none of the promises in their manifesto on galamsey have been fulfilled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing they have implemented is the GoldBod. Even their new Blue Water Guards will not succeed, because if 400 soldiers couldn\u2019t stop the destruction of our rivers, people in T-shirts won\u2019t either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"NPP'sThe Executive Director of the Institute for Energy Policies and Research, Kwadwo Nsafoah Poku, says the New Patriotic Party (NPP) lost several parliamentary seats in mining areas because of the party\u2019s strong crackdown on illegal mining, also known as galamsey.<\/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":[196,2019,1883,1881,9387,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-hp-news-10","category-national","category-npp","category-parliamentary-seats","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96035","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=96035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}