Renowned legal practitioner, Martin Kpebu, has called on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to resign for his failure to handle the menace of illegal small-scale mining - galamsey.

According to him, the president has proven that he does not have the capacity to hold the highest office of the land because he also seems to be unaware of happenings in the country in spite of all the security briefings he receives.

He intimated that rather than taking action on the information he has received on people causing havoc in the country through ‘galamsey’, he is rather holding meetings, myjoyonline.com reports.

“As we sit here, in every part of Ghana, the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) has officers all over. In every district of Ghana, there is a NIB officer. So, as you are walking around, he is also walking in the society and watching.

“So, he knows. Look, the President can’t say he is not being briefed about this thing. He is just sleeping on the job…I don’t know how many times we have to call on him.

“He just has to resign. This man is giving us too much headache. He has to check out…he should just resign. That is the best thing. He has shown clearly that he is not competent… we can’t fight galamsey… every time, he is always reactive…always reactive,” Martin Kpebu is quoted to have said on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Thursday (October 6).

The lawyer made these remarks while reacting to some of the utterances President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo made at a meeting with the National House of Chiefs and some Municipal Metropolitan and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) on 'galamsey' in Kumasi.

At the meeting, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo refuted suggestions that his government is not committed to the fight against illegal small-scale mining - galamsey.

According to Akufo-Addo, his government has been committed to the fight against the menace since his first day in office and its determination to curb it even cost his party; the New Patriotic Party (NPP) some votes in the 2020 General Elections.

The president intimated that the votes he and his party lost showed that he really put his presidency on the line to fight 'galamsey'.

"Since I took office on January 7th, 2017, nearly six years ago, I have made it a central feature of my presidency to lead in the fight to rid our country of this menace, which we all now call galamsey. Indeed, it was an important aspect of my inaugural address that day. It has not been easy; it has not been popular and we have not gotten the immediate results that I was looking for.

“Indeed, in the last election of 2020, my stance on the issue cost my party and I significant losses in the mining communities. It turned out that my statement that I was putting my presidency on the line in the fight against galamsey was neither bumbazed nor reckless. It was the simple truth,” he said.

Source: Ghanaweb