Akwasi Addae Odike, Founder and Leader of United Progressive Party
Founder and leader of United Progressive Party (UPP) Akwasi Addae Odike has dared President Nana Akufo-Addo to resign for the failure to fight the galamsey menace.
He explained that the President’s call for a national dialogue to trigger Phase two of the fight against galamsey is a clear admission of defeat on the president’s side, hence his call for Mr Akufo-Addo’s resignation.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in 2017 put his presidency on the line as he assured journalists at the Jubilee House that he will fight the galamsey war to reclaim Ghana’s lands and water bodies devastated with impunity by illegal miners.
Four years down the line, the president has called for a national dialogue for lasting solutions to the problem in order to save the environment.
Mr. Odike is of the view that “for the president to acknowledge the need for national dialogue on galamsey fight signals his gross defeat in his attempt to arrest the menace hence he has to resign because he put his job on the line some 4 years ago.”
Speaking on Akoma FM’s current affairs and political talk show GhanAkoma on Monday, April 26, the UPP leader took a swipe at the president, saying “unless President Akufo-Addo resigns for his failure in the fight against the ‘galamsey’ menace that has been bedevilling Ghana’s lands and water bodies, there will be no economic turnaround.”
“President Akufo-Addo has really failed big time,” Odike pointed out to host Aduanaba Kofi Asante Ennin. “As a statesman of his calibre, he is supposed to do the needful by resigning because he gave us his word that he doesn’t care if he loses his presidency.”
Meanwhile, Ashanti Regional Organizer for the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Francis Adomako in response to Odike’s calls explained that the galamsey war will be far from reach not to talk of winning if “we continue to wrap partisan colours around the discussion.”
“Let’s dispassionately attack the war at hand with a holistic approach devoid of politics else we will be circumventing, leaving the actual artisans and illegal miners in the pits with impunity destroying our water bodies.”