Traditional chieftains of many mining communities in Cross River State have expressed anger at how several mining firms, as well as illegal miners have wantonly plundered their mineral resources, enriched only themselves but impoverished them.

In Akamkpa and Biase Local Government areas, countless mining firms, as well as illegal miners prospect for natural resources, tearing open lands wantonly, but frequently do not declare what minerals they have discovered.

These have often caused frictions between them and local communities who feel cheated and raped, which reason amongst others the State government banned mining activities recently.

Speaking on behalf of other affected traditional chieftains of other neighbouring communities, the clan head of Akpet Central in Biase LGA of the State, Adolphus Sunday Evong said miners should no longer ill-treat mining host communities as if they did not matter, or take them for fools.

In an interview on the sideline of the workshop organised by the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office in the federal ministry of mines and steel development, for stakeholders in the South-South on the adoption of the electronic mining Cadastre System, the clan head said, “The situation where they exploit our resources and leave us bare, we are not going to accept such deprivations any longer.”

Expressing unhappiness, Evong said, “The natural resources they mine from our communities were given to us by God. So, they must carry the people along.

“The host communities should also enjoy what comes out from their lands. The poverty level in my community, for instance, is very high. So a situation where miners come and extract resources, enrich themselves without commensurate compensations is not fair at all, and not acceptable any more.”

According to him, they have nothing to show from the extraction of natural resources from their lands.

He said, “We have no light, no water, no decent houses, no roads. Yet they are basking in opulence from our resources; building mansions here and everywhere. Should we continue to allow that?

“Another thing that has made us very angry and it is very painful, too, is that these miners hardly declare what types of mineral resources they have discovered on our lands.

“They will continue to exploit and extract and make fortunes, leaving us in abject poverty.

“Henceforth, we want to know the type of minerals they have discovered from our lands. We want the miners to give host communities good percentages of the resources they mine so that we can use such to develop our communities.”

Reacting, a Chief Executive Officer of a mining firm in the State, Lady Diamond Sekibo insisted that as licensed miners they do declare what minerals they prospect for, and hoped that ongoing meetings with the authorities to resolve many issues will be worthwhile.

“As licensed miners, we are by law bound to declare the types of mineral resources we discover in any given community. It should be noted that the types of minerals to be mined are usually listed on one’s licence.

“It is the illegal miners that indulge in covering up what they have discovered from their prospecting,” she said.

She lamented that they are facing huge challenges, among which is multiple taxation.

“We do not even know where they are all coming from. We sincerely hope that the government will look into them with a view to streamlining them.
Many of us have been badly affected by the recent order by the State Government banning mining activities in the State.

“We are happy that we are resolving the issues with the government, so as to avoid further losses,” she added.