Mustapha Gbande defends Yamin, accuses NDC insiders of fueling false galamsey allegations

Deputy General Secretary of the National Democratic Congress(NDC) Mustapha Gbande has vehemently denied the involvement of the party’s National Organiser, Joseph Yamin’s involvement in illegal mining popularly known as galamsey.

His defence comes in the wake of the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Dr Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, directing the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate allegations of galamsey, involving Joseph Yamin and the party’s Vice National Chairman, Yakubu Abanga.

In an official directive dated 15th July 2025, the Attorney-General ordered EOCO to initiate a full-scale investigation into the allegation.

The directive follows what the Attorney-General described as “growing public concern, corroborated by media reports and intelligence” regarding unauthorized mining operations in several districts across the country.

But speaking in an interview on Asempa FM monitored by GhanaWeb, Mustapha Gbande defended Yamin’s innocence of the accusation, stressing that the latter has no hand in galamsey activities.

“If Yamin wants to do mining who can stop him once he goes through the necessary process. So what is the motivation for wrongly accusation him to the extent that all NPP newspaper have reported on his alleged involvement in galamsey. Yamin is not into mining, if he were into mining that would have been a different matter.”

Mustapaha Gbande who is also the Deputy Director of Operations at the Presidency, accused some NDC leading members of being behind the false accusation.

“I am saying the NPP is not beyond this one, it is internal from the NDC. Not all persons in the NDC have the party at heart. You don’t think somebody wants Yamin and myself to fail so that they could take up our positions during the next party primary. But it won’t wash because we have worked for the party, we have used our youthful age taking risk for the party. There are people who did not go anywhere during the electioneering campaign. Today, they are holding appointments. During the campaign period there were people I called to go to specific places, and today, they are ministers. They have the effrontery to think that they must rubbish party elders”

He warned that will deal ruthlessly with those falsely accusing Yamin.

“…Yamin is not a bitter person but I am saying that nobody should try to develop the appetite of destroying his reputation. We will fight back, it doesn’t matter what it will take. We have sacrificed and given out too much for the party. It would be an act of unpardonable ingratitude.”

KA

Meanwhile, you can watch GhanaWeb TV’s exclusive interview with Arathejay below: