{"id":96575,"date":"2025-10-01T08:31:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T08:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96575"},"modified":"2025-10-01T08:31:58","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T08:31:58","slug":"mahama-orders-probe-of-inner-circle-in-galamsey-fight-unlike-others-sam-george","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=96575","title":{"rendered":"Mahama orders probe of inner circle in galamsey fight, unlike others \u2013 Sam George"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Communication Minister Sam Nartey George says President John Mahama has demonstrated the strongest political will yet in the fight against illegal mining by directing security services to investigate two of his own national executives over alleged involvement in galamsey.<\/p>\n

Speaking on JoyNews\u2019 PM Express on September 30, the Minister contrasted Mahama\u2019s approach with that of the previous administration, accusing former President Akufo-Addo of tacitly endorsing party officials engaged in the illegal trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Mahama has been president for nine months now. Do I wish I have seen more? Absolutely. But in the nine months, I can confidently say that I see a desire and a will to deal with galamsey that didn\u2019t exist in the previous eight years,\u201d Sam George said.<\/p>\n

The Ningo Prampram MP argued that Mahama\u2019s decision to hand over his own party executives for investigation marks a sharp departure from the past. <\/p>\n

\u201cMeanwhile, under the previous president, you had a regional chairman talking to a minister saying that they must engage in galamsey because \u2018party hiya sika\u2019. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the president went to campaign for that individual. You saw the tacit endorsement of the presidency then of party apparatchiks getting involved in galamsey,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The Minister noted that under Mahama, the military, working with the late Defence Minister Dr Omane Boamah, had already reclaimed seven out of nine forest reserves from illegal miners. <\/p>\n

He revealed that the President has also scheduled a high-level engagement with over 30 civil society organisations on October 3, to draw up a joint roadmap against the menace.<\/p>\n

Sam George stressed, however, that while progress has been made, more enforcement is needed. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t need to rest on our oars. Ghanaians voted for us because they thought we will do better, and we should do better. Let\u2019s go all out and win this war, if not for anything, in memory of the eight gallant sons who died in the helicopter crash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Minister dismissed claims that he had called for a state of emergency in galamsey-hit areas. <\/p>\n

\u201cI have never, ever called for a state of emergency. I believe you can have targeted surgical operations led by our security forces,\u201d he clarified.<\/p>\n

For him, galamsey remains Ghana\u2019s most dangerous national threat. <\/p>\n

\u201cGalamsey is Ghana\u2019s version of Colombia\u2019s drug cartels. But I believe we\u2019re on our way to defeating it,\u201d he maintained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"MahamaCommunication Minister Sam Nartey George says President John Mahama has demonstrated the strongest political will yet in the fight against illegal mining by directing security services to investigate two of his own national executives over alleged involvement in 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":[196,1906,1883,10,9,8006],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galamsey","category-hp-news-5","category-national","category-politics","category-popular","category-sam-nartey-george"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96575","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=96575"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96575\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}