Nitiwul, Ambrose Dery shot down river guard idea under NPP – Mireku Duker

Former Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, George Mireku Duker, says he was the originator of the River Guard initiative, a policy idea now being implemented by the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) to tackle illegal mining.

The former Tarkwa-Nsuaem legislator said the initiative was rejected when he first proposed it during the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) time in power. He alleged that his idea was blocked by former Defence Minister Dominic Nitiwul, and Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery.

“This River Guard that the NDC has brought out, I first introduced it, but the Defence Minister at that time, Dominic Nitiwul, and the Interior Minister, Ambrose Dery, were against it. They said they would never allow it to happen,” he said. “This would have afforded us the opportunity to employ more of our youth. The NDC has now employed thousands of people with the River Guards. We are praying that we will get power again and correct all these.”

Duker made the comments while addressing NPP polling station executives at Kwamenakrom in Tarkwa last week. He argued that if the party had supported the initiative, it would have created jobs for many young people and helped the NPP consolidate its support base.

The former minister also used the occasion to push back against allegations that he had benefitted financially from state contracts during his time in office. He denied a claim that he was awarded a multi-million Ghana cedi contract by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

“They said I was given a 38 million cocoa contract with COCOBOD, but it is not true,” he said. “The propaganda that the NDC even used, our own people are using same. They even said that if you go to Ghana Manganese Company, all the workers were from Mankessim. But there was not even one person from Mankessim working at GMC. They even said I used my office to take over somebody’s house. Now that we don’t have power, can’t the person come out for his property?”

He described the allegations as part of a wider smear campaign by some elements within his own party who, he said, saw him as a threat because of his presidential ambitions.

“The same propaganda that the NDC used, they are using the same against me. This will not help us,” Duker lamented.

Speaking later to journalists on Tuesday, August 12, Duker accused senior NPP figures of orchestrating internal sabotage to weaken his political career. He said party leaders with presidential ambitions viewed him as a rival and deliberately worked against him at the national level.

“The bigwigs in the party in Accra see me as a threat, and so they realised that if I was not brought down, I could become the president of Ghana. Almost all those with presidential ambition worked against me,” he told reporters.

He added that his resources and political base in Tarkwa, a constituency in the resource-rich Western Region, made him a formidable figure. “They knew my resources were in the Western Region, Tarkwa, where there is gold. They noted that if someone from Bole that has no natural resources has become president, people from Akyim and Tefle in the Volta Region have all become president, then I, from Tarkwa, with all the resources here, they saw me as a threat to them,” Duker said.

The former MP alleged that party officials even went as far as creating divisions in his constituency to ensure he did not rise within the NPP. “So my issue is from the base, they worked against me from the national, they sowed the seed of division in Wassa,” he noted.

Duker lost his Tarkwa-Nsuaem parliamentary seat in the December 7, 2024 elections to the National Democratic Congress candidate, Sheikh Issah Salifu Taylor. Sheikh Taylor secured 35,906 votes, representing 47.11 percent, to unseat Duker, who polled 27,404 votes, or 35.96 percent.

The defeat, he believes, was the result of internal sabotage combined with the propagation of false allegations about his conduct in office. Duker insisted that if the party had united behind him, supported his policy ideas, and resisted divisive politics, the outcome might have been different.

Despite his loss, Duker maintains that he remains committed to the NPP and expressed hope that the party will return to power. He said his vision for the party and the country has not changed, even as he battles what he described as deliberate attempts to destroy his image.