The Member of Parliament for Effiduase Asokore in the Ashanti Region, Dr. Ayew Afriyie, has accused the National Democratic Congress (NDC) of sponsoring the pollution of water bodies across the country for electoral gains.
Addressing NPP supporters at the official launch of the party’s new movement, Volunteers for Bawumia 2024, in Kumasi ahead of the 2024 elections, chaired by the Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the MP expressed confidence that the NPP would win the 2024 elections.
A medical doctor by profession, Dr. Afriyie stated, “God wants us to win the 2024 election; that’s why He placed Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the party, number one on the ballot paper.”
He disclosed that research conducted by some foreign agencies indicates that the NPP is poised to win the 2024 presidential election, including a majority of parliamentary seats, with a difference of 18 seats over their main opponent, the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
“The research that was done as of last week shows that if we vote today, the NPP will gain 18 seats in addition to what we already have. The NDC leadership in Parliament is aware of this—we talk all the time. That’s why they’re all over Accra creating confusion, and people have been responding by saying they will not vote. Whatever the NDC does in Accra, we will vote in this election,” he shouted.
He further alleged that the NDC, sensing defeat ahead of the December 7 elections, has resorted to creating confusion in Accra with needless protests to mislead the electorate for votes.
He also accused the NDC of sponsoring and leading foreigners to pollute water bodies across the country, provoking Ghanaians against the ruling government for its poor handling of the illegal mining menace, also known as galamsey.
“They are in Accra describing small-scale miners and community miners as galamsey just to confuse the people. The Togolese and Burkinabes that the NDC brought to the banks of rivers Oda, Offin, and Pra to pollute the waters—we are aware, and we are going after them,” he alleged.
Dr. Afriyie disclosed that the NPP had launched an operation in the middle belt to tackle these issues. “We will do everything possible to catch one of the people they brought in. The one we’ve arrested has assured us he will help us arrest the other members of the group, so we won’t expose him. He doesn’t understand our language,” he lamented.
He further claimed, “The NDC has noticed that we are winning all the parliamentary seats in the mining areas, so they decided to import foreigners and assign them directly into the water bodies, not the forest areas. We’ve had no water problems the whole year, but now, just a few days to the election, everybody is talking about galamsey and water pollution. It is their trap; they want us to ban small-scale mining and galamsey so that we will lose our seats in the mining areas. We will not stop galamsey today or tomorrow”.
He explained that there’s a difference between mining in the forest and mining in river bodies as a small-scale miner.
“As for those mining in the river bodies, we will stop them because their activities are a threat to the state, but not those mining in the forest,” he reiterated.
