By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Igwo community of Kokona Local Government Area (LGA), Nasarawa State, comprising Agbadu, Egboka, and Agaza,
has expressed regret over what it believes to be an affront on the part of three companies allegedly using explosives and mining lithium illegally, even as their operations where stopped sometime ago by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) lead by the FederalMines Officer in Nasarawa State.
There has been agitations amidst allegations by the people of Agbadu, Egboka, and Agaza communities of Igwo Village in the Agwada District of Kokona Local Government Area, Nasarawa State that some mining firms operating in the areas under claims that they (the companies) had acquired that portion of their ancestral land for exploration of lithium but were mining there illegally without license and must leave.
Speaking to our correspondent in a telephone chat on Thursday, comrade Saidu Haruna, the Secretary of Agaza community in Igwo Village in Agwada, District, alleged that the mining firms have continued to not only mine the mineral there, but also use explosives, despite federal government’s order several months ago stopping them due to the controversies surrounding their operations.
Recall that in recent past, as part of environmental protection measures, the federal government outlawed use, as it were, of explosives by mining firms, making blasting an offence with consequences for perpetrators.
According to Haruna, Black stone new energy Company Ltd, C.& A new energy Nig Ltd,
and Black Gem New Energy Company Ltd are the three companies working there without licence and using explosives to traumatise the people.
The inhabitants’ major concern, according to him, is that these firms who have questionable license over the sites have defied the federal government’s stop-work order by resuming their mining operations at a site and even carrying out blasting with explosives – a practice banned by the government for environmental security, under a purported exploration license, with impunity.
“We have the stop-work order that was given to them by the federal government sometime back for them to stop work there. But they are still operating, and to make matter worse, with explosives, thus posing threat to lives and property in the area.
“We don’t know whether it is the same federal government or state that allowed them to continue work there but for us in the community, we are completely against what they are doing we are just on what they are doing.”
In an interview earlier, the community’s elite chairman, Mr Bitrus Oseshi, reportedly alleged that some individuals connived with foreign miners to sell vast portions of their land, covering over 3,000 hectares behind their Black to Gem New Energy Limited, adding, “We only got to know when papers started surfacing.”
According to him, “the state government is aware. They are processing the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O). How can land be sold without the owners’ consent? This is unacceptable. They have even started operating on the land and harassing some of our people. We will not keep quiet”.
In the same vein, Mr Igwo, a former deputy chairman of Keffi Local Government and retired lecturer, had reportedly said the community was united in its rejection of the deal and is calling for urgent intervention from the state and federal governments.
Our correspondent gathered that petition on the matter had been earlier sent to the National Security Adviser (NSA), Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Senate committee on Solid Minerals, Director, Mines Inspectorate of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development among others.
The inhabitants want the state government to clarify it’s stand on the matter as to whether support C & A company through Oga Ogazi and Emma Omale, while the Director of Mines should explain whether he had relaxed the government’s stop-work order for the firms to continue what they described as illegal mineral exploitation in the area.