Illegal miners in Lapai LG flushed out – official
NAN-H-25
Miners
By Mercy Osajiugo
Lapai (Niger) April 1, 2017 (NAN) Illegal miners, who operated in the rural areas of Lapai Local Government of Niger, have been flushed out, according to Mr Idris Abubakar, Director, Agricultural and Natural Resources Department.
Abubakar told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Lapai, that stringent measures were taken to rid the area of the illegal miners because their activities had constituted “massive ecological danger”.
“When I took charge of the agriculture and natural resources department in Lapai, I met some people that claimed to be `local miners’, but I saw them as illegal miners because they did not have any document.
“I advised them to obtain the legal nod to mine, and particularly counseled them to take advantage of the fact that the Federal Government was paying special attention to the solid mineral sector.
“I told them that government will not allow them to carry out their haphazard activities on our soil which was already depleting.
“I also told them that if we continued to tolerate them, our land will continue to degrade and will constitute a bigger problem for us in future,” he said.
He pointed out that a degraded land, if not reclaimed, could also become a hideout for criminals and wild animals.
Abubakar said that miners with legal documents had moved into some of the mining sites in the area to commence exploration, while the illegal ones had been chased out and banned from the sites.
He advised illegal miners to steer clear of Lapai Local Government as anyone caught would face the full weight of the law. (NAN)
MNO/ETS
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Edited by Ephraims Sheyin