Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, has disputed a report by the Foundation for Security & Development in Africa (FOSDA) that the region is the most violent in Ghana.
The Minister says the report by the organization does not reflect the true situation on the ground.
The Minister, speaking at a press conference in Accra, said the regional security council under his administration has made significant progress since he took office.
“The major security challenges we inherited, we’ve been able to solve them. If you take Asante Akyem Agogo, the cattle herdsmen menace has been there for decades and even the late former president Rawlings established operation calm life in 1992 to curb that menace. When I took over in 2017, I went to Agogo, the capital of Asante Akyem North and had a meeting with the chiefs and people in a church and told them we will nip that menace in the bud. Now everybody can attest to the fact that that menace has been brought down to the barest minimum.”
The Minister also assured Ghanaians that the fight against galamsey will not stop despite the difficulty.
“Galamsey is like fighting the black market. You fight them here, they pop up elsewhere. We are doing our best. Most of the people are being prosecuted, especially in the Obuasi areas. Sometimes the fines are too low that they are not punitive enough, and these are the discussions we may have to have with the judiciary, because if you fine a galamsey operator GH¢5,000 it’s not enough. They just pay and go back to the site.”
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
