Devastating galamsey activities are rapidly encroaching on land on which key public infrastructure are situated in the Juaben Municipality.
Some of the activities are now taking place dangerously close to the main road at the Akronwe-Wabiri road.
Despite the visible ecological and infrastructural threat, authorities in the Municipality claim their hands are tied due to a frustrating security jurisdictional loophole that is shielding the illegal operators.
Speaking on Ghanakoma Morning Show on Akoma 87.9 FM in Kumasi with Sir John, on July 16,2026, the Municipal Chief Executive for Juaben, Eunice Ohenewaa Ansu, blamed a clash in police jurisdictions among Bekwai, Konongo, and her municipality for the ongoing failure to halt the operations.
According to the MCE, while the degraded lands administratively fall under the Juaben Municipality, police commands in neighbouring Bekwai and Konongo claim security jurisdiction over the area.
This overlapping boundary dispute has effectively blocked Juaben police from conducting regular patrols or executing arrests.
She alleged that while police units from Konongo and Bekwai frequently patrol the area, their presence has done nothing to deter the illegal miners.
The MCE expressed grave concern that the illegal miners showed zero fear in the presence of high-ranking security officials, continuing their operations unabated, a defiance she directly attributed to the compromised manner in which patrolling police have historically treated them.
The worst-hit area at the Akronwe-Wabiri intersection is part of a concession legally registered to a private firm, Charlie and Sons Mining Company Limited.
The land has been left severely degraded, with massive open pits posing a direct threat to the nearby road and commuters.
While the galamsey operations in Pemenase, another community within the municipality, are not situated next to major roads, officials noted that the environmental destruction there is equally catastrophic.
To break the deadlock, the MCE, in her capacity as the head of MUSEC, has made an urgent appeal to the Minister for the Interior.
She requested immediate ministerial intervention to resolve the security boundary dispute and formally hand patrol and enforcement authority to the Juaben Police Command.
This, she emphasised, is the only way the municipality can gain total security control and launch a decisive, uncompromised crackdown to permanently end the illegal mining menace in the area.
By Benjamin Aidoo
