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Charles Owusu says President Nana Akufo-Addo must begin to write what he terms as 'love letters' to his appointees and Heads of the various State institutions.

The love letter, which by inference refers to dismissal letter, according to the former Head of Monitoring Unit at the Forestry Commission, should be given to all Chief Executives of the institutions, MMDCEs and public officials in charge of the lands and natural resources sector but have become negligent.

The President met with the National House of Chiefs and MMDCEs at Manhyia on Wednesday, 5th October and charged them to join hands with him to eradicate galamsey activities.

The President said; "We have tried many initiatives, including that of the Community Mining Scheme, and the establishment of a new legal regime for dealing with the perpetrators of this phenomenon, which has imposed severe sanctions on those, Ghanaians and foreigners, convicted of illegal mining. Still, we have not won the fight.

"It is obvious that, if we are to win the fight, it would require a collaborative effort to do so. The fight against Galamsey can only succeed if it is a truly national battle, which no one seeks to exploit for political gain, as we saw in the last election. The progress of our country depends on all of us, all citizens of Ghana, all Fellow Ghanaians, pulling together to defeat this existential threat to our future."

He also stressed that “we have to win that fight to keep our environment clean, and protect our heritage for our descendants, as you did in the past”.

Charles Owusu slammed the MMDCEs and State institutions bosses for shirking their responsibilities, hence blaming them for the continuance of the galamsey menace and the influx of illegal miners in the country.

"I think it is high time the President started writing love letter to some people. The President needs to write love letter to some people; those who are responsible for the day-to-day management of the resources we're talking about today . . . I think that the people who are responsible for day-to-day work to prevent the [illegal] galamsey, they are not doing it," he said while speaking on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo' programme.

He wondered why no punitive measures have been taken against these Chief Executives who have failed in their mandates with regard to ensuring there is no encroachment on the forest reserves and no galamsey activities in the mining communities.

"Indeed, the galamseyers voted against President Akufo-Addo and his party . . . Because all the mining areas, almost, the NPP lost the mining areas but when they lost, those people who were supposed to do their job but shirked the duties; the same people are still there.

"They are doing nothing and we will be insulting the Chiefs. I want to ask who goes for a lease from the palace? . . . The civil servants, the Chief Executives of these various State institutions responsible for the management of the day-to-day of those institutions, where are they? Why are they not talking?", he queried.