The politicization of the conversation around the illegal menace continues with the latest ‘showdown’ between Jennifer Queen Oforiwaa, the Deputy National Communications Director for the New Patriotic Party, and Kwaku Boahene, former Deputy Director of Communications of the National Democratic Congress.

The two political communicators clashed on Accra-based UTV, with Jennifer Queen challenging Kwaku Boahene to prove that he did not engage in illegal mining during the erstwhile John Mahama era.

Jennifer Queen claims that Kwaku Boahene was involved in galamsey and therefore lacks the moral authority to speak out against the menace.

She cautioned against the politicization of the discourse around the menace, noting that politicizing the issue will not help the country solve one of its biggest challenges.

“Can he (Kwaku Boahene) claim that he did not engage in galamsey during the NDC era? Hold your balls if you did not engage in galamsey during the Mahama era. He can't answer my question because he knows he is lying.

“He is quick to insult, and we all can do the same, but we won’t do it. He knows what I'm saying is true. He posits as a saint and makes allegations against Abu Jinapor, but one day he will be dragged to court to answer these allegations.

“If politics wasn’t a cheap avenue for making money, would you stop teaching to become a politician? They are destroying our water bodies, and you are here politicizing the issues. The galamsey conversation must be a nationalistic one,” she said.

Meanwhile, Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has said that the government will take urgent steps to address the galamsey situation.

Speaking on Joy FM's Super Morning Show, the Minister expressed conviction that the new moves by the government will culminate in a total remediation of the situation and restore the country’s water and forest resources.

“We are going to have the review today, and I’m 1,000% certain that we are going to deploy. We are going to ramp up our enforcement measures. So all these places you are talking about, we are going to have a cleanup there.

“We are going to have a complete swoop. We are going to send law enforcement agencies to take a swoop of that whole stretch, particularly the Central Region. You can be rest assured of that, and you can monitor that,” he said.

EK