Some residents of the Asiakwa, especially the market women and traders, have called on Daasebre Dr. Twum Ampofo II, the Asiakwahene, and his cabinet to review the ban imposed on mining in the community.
Asiakwa is known as one of the mining areas in Eastern mining, and many people, particularly the farmers, have raised red flags about how the activities of illegal mining are affecting their farm crops and the water bodies in the community.
This concern, raised by the farmers, drew the attention of the Asiakwahene to have several crunch meetings with the miners to avoid mining along the water bodies as well as destroying farmlands and to embark on responsible mining to protect both water bodies, lands, forests, and farmlands, but yielded no positive results.
In the latter part of March this year, the Asiakwa Royal Palace placed a total ban on mining in the community and issued a two-week ultimatum to the miners to remove all their mining equipment from the site and leave the place.
This directive by the Asiakwa Royal Place sought to protect the Supong River, Birim River farmlands, and forests from being destroyed by illegal miners in the area.
Our media team, led by Kontihene Kofi Oboh, visited some mining sites on April 4, 2025, to see whether they had complied with the directive.
The miners have removed their excavators from the sites.
However, some reclaimed the land before moving their excavators, while others abandoned the pits.
According to the market women and traders in Asiakwa, the business came to a standstill
when miners seized operations,
They called on Daasebre Twum Ampofo II to revisit the ban and regularize their work to enable them to do responsible mining.
They added that this directive is affecting their businesses because when they go to market, they don’t get buyers to purchase their items. As for the food vendors, theirs is the worst.
They again mentioned that apart from mining jobs, the youth partaking there were no jobs for them to do.
Therefore, pleading with Daasebre Twum Ampofo II to hear their cry and reconsider his decision to allow them to go back to work so that they could patronize their items to get money to cater for their families.
Adding his voice to the development, the former Assemblyman for the Supong electoral area and a farmer, Mr. Yaw Amoako, said that the farmers’ association in Asiakwa planned to embark on a gargantuan demonstration against the miners for damaging the water bodies and destroying farmlands for mining.
“We then had several engagements with Daasebre Dr. Ampofo about the canker, and he asked us to give him two weeks, and after that, we would hear from him,” he recounted.
Mr. Yaw Amoako stated that they were glad that Asiakwahene had put a halt to mining.
But they are expecting that proper measures would be put in place to ensure the ban wouldn’t be a nine-day wonder.
However, there hasn’t been any communication from the Asiakwa Royal Palace on when the ban would be lifted.
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