Four Chinese and 16 other persons suspected to be engaged in illegal mining operations at Echara Unuphu, Abakaliki local government area of Ebonyi state have been arrested by officials of the state government and security operatives in the state.
Addressing newsmen at the mining site, Dr. Kenneth Ugbala, the Senior Special Adviser to the governor on Internal Security, condemned the activities of illegal miners across the state, noting that the state government would no longer fold its arms and allow the fortunes of the state to end in private pockets.
“The future of this state is at stake because of the activities of these illegal miners. I have the privileged of being in China and Chinese don’t tamper with their environment no matter what the problem may be.
With the type of problem created here in the name of mining, it is possible that this tunnel they created must have passed to underground to government House and every other places that Ebonyi people are living.
“So, what do we expect? A total collapse! When we are living up, another road is on the ground in the name of mining and there is no society and there is no environment, states that this type of thing is seen.
It is not as if they pay Internally Generated Revenue. What type of IGR will even be more important than the future of our children and the entire people of the state. We fish out these people,” he said.
On her part, Mrs. Nwakaego Nworie, Special Adviser to the governor on Solid Mineral Development, said she had visited the site with Geological experts and that the miners only allowed them to enter only the premises but prevented them from carrying out a holistic overview of their activities.
Nworie recalled “I became very curious and insisted that I must see the whole site. I moved down inside the site. I got to a place a soldier blocked me and threatened to shoot me if I pass him. The soldier told me, don’t go to that extreme. That day, I saw the tunnel even though I was prevented from going closer to it.”
“Today, I am overwhelmed that I have seen the tunnel of mining for the first time in my life. I made investigation to know if our office is aware of this tunnel and no one could give me information. Before an underground mining can take place, there must be a bye-law and mutual agreement between the host state and investor. But now, we are not aware of underground here and it is worrisome,” she said.
One of the suspects, Nnamdi Peter who hails from Enugu said he has worked in the mining tunnel for three months.
“In the first place, I don’t know this is illegal mining. If it is illegal, I wouldn’t have been working here.
The company should have carried out Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) with NESRA before embarking on this type of mining”.
The suspects had been detained at the Ebonyi State Police Command for further investigation.
