Nana Nyomwah Panyin V, the chief of Dompim-Pepesa, says that three government appointees in the Western Region asked him to do galamsey with them if he couldn’t fight them.
The chief said that the rate at which forests are being cut down in his area is alarming.
This is why he met with the perpetrators to talk about what they could do to help protect the environment.
According to the chief, the Western Regional Minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, who is also an MP for Takoradi, the Tarkwa MCE, Benjamin Kesse, and the Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, George Kofi Mireku Duker, who is also an MP for Tarkwa Nsuaem, is leading the fight against the problem that the President says he is trying to stop.
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In an interview with Captain Smart on Onua TV/FM on Wednesday, Nana Panyin V said that Tarkwa Municipal Chief Executive Benjamin Kesse had told him, in front of Mireku Duker, to join them in doing the galamsey if he couldn’t beat them.
Nana said that, because they had evil plans, Mr. Duker’s security asked him to leave his phone with them so that no one could record them when he went to see the MP in his office at Job 600.
He did admit, though, that the regional minister, Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah, wasn’t at that meeting.
The MCE had said that Kwabena Okyere Darko Mensah dealt with the top guys in the galamsey business, but he wasn’t there.
On the same show, Benjamin Kesse denied ever having such a talk with the chief. Since 2021, he has met the chief only once, and when they did, they talked about chieftaincy, not galamsey.