President John Dramani Mahama has confessed that illegal mining, commonly known as galamsey, involves individuals across political and traditional structures.
According to John Mahama, he will not kid himself that his own party people are not involved in the galamsey menace.
President Mahama highlighted that the fight against the galamsey menace will be difficult but must continue.
Mahama stressed that operators often shift allegiance when governments change, allowing the practice to continue.
Speaking during a meeting with Organised Labour at the Jubilee House in Accra on Tuesday, March 17, President Mahama stated, “Illegal mining has eaten into the fabric of our society. And I must say that it is not only a menace to our society, but it has involved a circle of traditional rulers, political party appointees and everything”.
“Even when one party changes, those who were running some operation, who went to one party, will go to the next party and say, now that you have come, come and take over this operation and let’s share. We, too, will be getting small; this is what we are doing. And so I don’t kid myself that we don’t have our own people involved,” he stated.
President Mahama further touched on the work of the anti-illegal mining task force NAIMOS, describing it as challenging, especially in communities where resistance is strong.
He added, “And the work of the NAIMOS is not easy. They go to a community, and the chiefs, the youth and everybody come out and resist them. And so, I didn’t kid myself that we would be able to win that fight overnight. But we cannot relent, we must continue”.
“And it doesn’t help when we have a crisis in the cocoa industry. The low price that was paid to cocoa farmers made some of them give up their farms for gold mining,” he noted.
“We are hoping that it will stabilise with the new automatic mechanism we are coming up with so that farmers know that they are getting 70% of the price,” he said.
“One of the problems we have is we don’t have patrol boats, especially on our waterways, for nine months to continue to patrol the waterways,” he explained.
Mahama further added that the Finance, Defence and Interior ministries are working to provide the necessary resources.
“So, we are working with the minister of finance to be able to maintain that,” he said.
Meanwhile, Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), has boldly stated that the polluter pays principle must be applied for illegal mining (galamsey) king/queen-pins and operators to pay for the destruction caused to the environment.
According to Professor H Kwasi Prempeh, he would hate for his taxes to fund the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Nano-liquid technology to clean the galamsey polluted rivers.
He argued that Ghana must enact new laws targeting galamseyers’ assets for forfeiture and recovery, with the proceeds being used to fund ecological restoration.
He stressed that Ghana cannot lose so much of its ecology to galamsey, then turn round to use its scarce tax resources to fix the damage.
Professor H Kwasi Prempeh boldly declared that the government shouldn’t tax innocent citizens to repair the damage from galamsey, when the criminal-beneficiaries and their networks have profited.
In a Facebook post dated February 24, 2026, Prof Prempeh wrote, “I would hate for my taxes to fund any of this, when we are making no credible effort to arrest and prosecute galamsey king/queen-pins and operators, enact and enforce new laws targeting their assets for forfeiture and recovery, and use the proceeds to fund ecological restoration.
We cannot lose so much of our ecology to galamsey, then turn round to use our scarce tax resources to fix the damage. The damage from galamsey must be repaired from assets and funds recovered from those who profit from it.
The “polluter pays principle” must be applied here. The government shouldn’t tax innocent citizens to repair the damage from galamsey, when the criminal-beneficiaries and their networks that have caused and profited from such untold damage are left to walk away with their loot in plain sight”.
His remarks follow, the Chief Executive Officer of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Nana Ama Brown Klutse, has said $35 million will be required to completely restore the Birim River.
The EPA boss made this known during the pilot application of ionic nano copper technology on the Birim River.
See the post below:
"I won't pretend, one own people are involved with galamsey." — President John Mahama #MetroNews #metrotvonline pic.twitter.com/PiO95mEXyF
— Metro TV Ghana (@metrotvgh) March 18, 2026