A group of environmental activists and climate crusaders, the Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) has described the death of 13 young miners in Bassa Council of Plateau State, barely a week after a mine collapse led to over 30 deaths in Taraba and Adamawa states as a national tragedy reflecting the seriousness of illegal mining in the country.
The latest incident on Saturday, November 9, 2024 happened in the boundary between Bassa, Jos South and Jos North councils of Plateau State, with most of the dead said to be teens and young men from Bassa, who were trying to make a living through mining.
In a statement made available to journalists by Project Officer of RDI, Ifeoluwa Adediran, the group said that the increasing number of mine collapse incidents especially in the north indicates that the magnitude of illegal mining is beyond what the eye can capture even as it noted that lack of proper oversight by the relevant agencies should be a cause of concern.
Reacting to the latest incident, Executive Director of RDI, Philip Jakpor said: “We had thought that the uproar that trailed the Shiroro mine collapse in Niger State in August and the recent collapse of mining pit in Taraba and Adamawa in which no fewer than 30 persons died was enough, but the incident in Plateau State betrays the fact that the entire architecture of oversight on mining operations needs to be interrogated and overhauled to halt the death of young Nigerians”
Jakpor said that governments at all levels seem to have given up or are in complicit silence over the invasion of mining sites across the country by illegal miners either Chinese or indigenous and the inauguration of the mining marshals by the Federal Government has not stopped the illegalities.
“We believe it is now time for a complete review of the Mining marshal initiative to make it more in line with the realities on ground in the mining communities. Of particular urgency is the need for synergy in their operation with local communities and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) which is currently not happening”
He stressed that there is the need for a national conference on illegal mining to enable local communities to determine how their resources are extracted and used for their benefit, adding that currently the oil curse in the Niger Delta seem to be playing out with solid minerals in northern Nigeria.
“The mining deaths are avoidable and unacceptable. Now is the time for the government to identify and hold the illegal mine operators accountable for not only fleecing the nation and ruining our environment, but also killing our people. Anything short of this is a time bomb only waiting to explode,” Jakpor stated.
