77 Illegal Miners Arrested In Ogun State – NSCDC Reports

In 2023, no fewer than seventy-seven (77) illegal miners were apprehended at different locations by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ogun State.

The Commandant of NSCDC in the state, David Ojelabi, revealed this information during an interview on Wednesday, January 31, 2024.

The NSCDC boss mentioned that the command collaborated with the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel to address the issue.

As a precautionary measure, letters were sent to mining groups in the state, cautioning them against storing explosives in residential areas.

The action, Naija News understands, was prompted by the recent Ibadan explosion, which was attributed to the explosives used by illegal miners.

Ojelabi attributed the easy access to explosives by these miners to the porosity of the borders, through which many of them imported such devices.

He further said, “It is like asking how armed robbers are getting their rifles and so on. Wherever you have 12 sitting together, possibly you have one Judas among them.

“So, because of the number of unmanned borders, I mean porous borders or illegal borders, they can easily import those things illegally into the country and make use of them.”

Killings In Plateau Caused By Land Grabbers, Illegal Miners – Bagos

Meanwhile, a former member of the Plateau State House of Representatives representing Jos South/Jos East, Dachung Musa Bagos, has claimed that the killings in Plateau State are prompted by land grabbers who use these communities for illegal mining and agricultural purposes.

He insisted that there is no issue of ethnic, religious, or farmer/herder clash in the state.

Bago asserted that false narratives have, for many years, been put on the table to explain the killings in the state.

The former lawmaker stated this in an interview with Arise Television last week Friday.

He noted that over 60 communities have been wiped out from the Plateau since 2001.

The former lawmaker said, “What is happening is pure genocide, land grabbing. People come into communities, kill, chase these people and occupy their lands. And it’s not just a mere statement, the facts and proofs are there, since 2001, over 60 communities had been wiped out on the Plateau.

“The first thing that we have identified is that the wrong narratives have been given to the killings on the Plateau- farmers/herders, it is not so. Religious, it is not so, but people bring in the element of religion into these killings so that they’ll be able to do what they need.

“The major purpose that we identified, and if you look at the chronology of all the villages that have been wiped out on the Plateau, each and every one of them has one or two economic potentials on the Plateau.

“All the communities that have been wiped out on the Plateau, all of them today, go back to those communities, you will see that some people are mining in those communities that you cannot even access those communities.

“Go to some of these communities, you will see that these communities are highly vegetational that you can farm there, you can rear cows there, they have streams. So, all these communities are for a certain target.”