Murtala Mohammed: Mahama will keep his pledge to repeal L.I. 2462 within 120 days.

Dr. Murtala Mohammed, the Environment, Science, and Technology Minister, has denied allegations that the government has not successfully combated illegal mining or galamsey.
He claims that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration has only been in power for two months and has barely finished selecting ministers.
Dr. Mohammed said in an interview with JoyNews PM Express on Monday, March 10, that evaluating the government’s success on Galamsey is unjust, given that the nation has been battling the problem for the last eight years.
He clarified that the current Legislative Instrument (L.I.) regulating mining is already being repealed.

According to Dr. Mohammed, the government is just halfway through the 120-day term that President John Mahama promised to address unlawful mining.
“The process to repeal the L.I. has begun. These commitments made by President Mahama were based on a 120-day timeline. He promised that I would do A, B, C, and D in 120 days. We have little over 60 days left,” he clarified.

He disclosed that the procedure was started by his ministry two weeks ago, not long after he took office.

“As I speak to you, the Ministry of Environment, Science, and Technology should be the one to launch the L.I. Just one week after I was sworn in, two weeks ago, we began the procedure. I signed a letter addressed to the Attorney General and the Ministry of Justice.

“The Ministry looked at it and did what they needed to do, and returned the letter to me for another one to be signed, which I signed last Thursday,” he said.
Additionally, he chastised anyone who voiced concerns without first obtaining correct information from his ministry.

Depending on the parliamentary calendar, Dr. Mohammed promised that the bill to repeal the L.I. will be presented to Parliament shortly, perhaps even this week.