Members of the coalition, as part of their engagements, called on the leadership of the Chamber yesterday to court their support to join the campaign against the ‘galamsey’ menace which has caused considerable damage to the environment and other water bodies.
Meeting Chamber of Mines
The convener of the coalition, Mr Kenneth Ashigbey, led the team to confer with the management of the Chamber to apprise them of their activities since the launch of the coalition about three months ago.
Briefing the Daily Graphic on the outcome of the meeting, the President of the Ghana Chamber of Mines, Mr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, lauded the coalition for their sustained engagements and efforts to sensitise the public to the danger associated with doing galamsey on the environment.
He described the meeting as successful, stating that the two bodies discussed how to ensure the campaign did not lose momentum but rather continued to educate the public to engage in responsible mining.
Red Friday
In an effort to intensify the campaign against the menace, OccupyGhana, a pressure group, declared the last Friday of every month as ‘Red Friday’ where members of the coalition and persons concerned would dress in red apparel to send a message to Ghanaians that ‘enough is enough’.
The media coalition has set a target to collect one million signatures from Ghanaians and individuals interested in joining the fight against illegal mining for presentation to the government for the appropriate action to be taken.
It is against this backdrop that Mr Kufuor expressed the willingness of the Chamber to share information with the coalition on the impact of galamsey and ways the industry and the coalition could, together, improve information sharing to educate the public about the harmful impact of the menace.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Chamber, Mr Sulemanu Koney, who was part of the meeting, told the Daily Graphic that the Chamber’s leadership was working towards finding solutions to mining-related issues, for which reason the institution was prepared to share information with agencies that matter to help stop the menace.
Leadership failure
Mr Ashigbey, who is also the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), said the failure to curb illegal mining in the country over the years was unfortunate as such and there was the need for urgent steps to stop it now.
Attributing the current state of affairs on leadership failure to all sectors, he urged the political leadership to, for once, take charge and bring the menace to an immediate end.
The coalition earlier announced plans to visit all the galamsey sites across the country to drum home the dangers the menace was posing to the society.
The membership of the coalition include the GCGL, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA), New Times Corporation, Ghana Journalists Association, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, the Christian Council and the Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG).