Residents of Dangbala community in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State have raised the alarm over the return of illegal gold miners in the community......READ THE FULL ARTICLE>>>
The residents, under the aegis of Concerned Residents of Dangbala, raised the alarm in a statement endorsed by Godwin Amusa and Agbaje Saiki, convener and secretary respectively, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune in Benin on Tuesday.
The residents noted that it had become imperative to go public on the issue in order to avoid the Zamfara State situation in the purely agrarian community.
They said that not only had the increased competitions among the invading illegal miners created tension in the community, but also that their activities had become an issue of security threat to the people of the area.
The residents said that they now sleep and wake with the fear of not knowing what to expect in the community.
They stressed that aside security threat to the area and by extension the state, both the state and the federal government were losing a lot of revenue through the illegal mining activities.
According to the group, “The once peaceful community has been turned into something else which may snowball into what will become a problem to the community and state as a whole.
“These people move in with their equipment at ungodly hours and carry on with their activities with impunity. With the way they go about, one is forced to believe that they have outside forces backing them.
“As I speak with you, the leadership of the community is divided on the matter, while some pretend not to know what is happening, others who are speaking against it are being shutdown.
“This is the reason why a few of us came together and decided to come out public to call for urgent action to be taken by the authorities to stop what may become public unrest if not handled with dispatch.”
It will be recalled that earlier in the year, the community had raised similar alarm over the same issue.
The miners, however, vacated the community following the intervention of the Edo State government then.
Meanwhile, Concerned Residents of Dangbala said the miners returned to the community few weeks ago more determined to continue from where they left.
The Zonal Mining Officer (ZMO), Mr Abdulkadiri Adamu, said he was not aware of the return of the illegal miners to the area since it was shut down by the Edo State Government.
He said: “Edo State government placed embargo on the activities of miners in the area and I’m not aware that they are back.”
