A Former Assembly member for Sanso Electoral Area in the Obuasi Municipal Assembly and the current National Spokesperson for The Small Scale Mining Association, Mr. Benjamin Annan is asking the Member of Council of State and astute Lawyer Samuel Okudzeto to “Shut-Up” if he has nothing to say. Mr. Sam Okudzeto has openly expressed his unflinching support for the Government’s decision to continue with the moratorium on the ban on Small Scale Mining in the Country until all water bodies are clean, pure and safe to use.
Mr. Okudzeto last week spoke on the theme: “Between Kayayie, Galamsey, Mediterranean cemetery: Our collective moral responsibility for the well being of our vulnerable younger generation” organized by the Institute for Christian Impact in Accra. According to Mr. Sam Okudzeto, it is very unfortunate for people to say there is difference between Small-Scale Mining and ‘Galamsey’ or Illegal Mining. He maintained that it would seem common sense to understand the logic of the preference for cultivation of the soil for food than a search for food but the younger generation do not understand this.
Mr. Benjamin Annan, responding to Mr. Sam Okudzeto in an exclusive interview with Justice Dzivon Mensah (also known as Ghanaba) on Shaft FM Morning Show on Tuesday said it is unfortunate for an astute Lawyer and a Council of Sate Member like his caliber to make such statement. “To my own understanding I know Mr. Sam Okudzeto is a very good Lawyer but he knows next to nothing on Small-Scale Mining”. Mr. Benjamin Annan maintained anyone who wants to learn and understand the difference between Small-Scale Mining and ‘Galamsey’ in Ghana by now should be able to differentiate between the two. ‘We have done a lot of education on the difference between the two and anyone who wants to know should by now know, so we know it is a deliberate attempt by Council of State Member to confuse to two so he should ‘Shut Up’!
According to Mr. Annan the theme was on Galamsey and Kayayie and not on Small-Scale Mining. He opined that though Small-Scale Mining, Galamsey and Large Scale Mining has to do with extraction of gold but not the same. He explained that thsoe who involved in Galamsey are those who haven’t acquire license from the Minerals commission and do not reclaim the land after they have extracted the gold. Mr. Annan revealed at a point the Small-Scale Miners even went to see the overlord of the Ashanti Kingdom, Otumfour Osei Tutu II to explain the differences between Small-Scale Mining and Galamsey and appeal to Otumfour to talk to President Akufo Addo to lift the ban to him and Otumfour openly admitted he also supported the ban because didn’t know the difference between the two and that He Otumfour said he was worried those involve in the Small-Scale Mining has been banned from their activities and that he was going to meet the President. So if we have been able to explain the difference between the two to the President and Asantehene to understand who is Sam Okudzeto? He quizzled.
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