Nigeria’s minister of solid minerals development, Dele Alake, has called for an army battalion to be established in Zurak, Plateau State, to strengthen security and tackle illegal mining, after receiving the report of the high level investigation committee into the February 18 gas poisoning at Kampani Zurak in Wase Local Government Area. About 37 people died and 25 others were hospitalised after exposure to toxic gases at the underground site. The federal government ordered the closure of areas covered by Mining Licence 11810, operated by Solid Unit Nigeria Limited, and set up the 19 member committee on April 16 to establish the causes, examine regulatory compliance and recommend reforms.
The committee’s co chairman, Faruk Yabo, said investigators established that the victims died in an abandoned underground mining tunnel where carbon monoxide and hydrogen sulphide had accumulated because of inadequate ventilation. The victims were not employees of Solid Unit Nigeria Limited, the company operating under Mining Licence 11810, but illegal miners who had entered the abandoned workings, he said.
Alake described enforcement as the most reliable approach to tackling illegal mining and endorsed the committee’s recommendation for a military battalion in the Zurak area, describing the terrain as remote and difficult to access. “If we had an army battalion stationed there, the presence would deter illegal operators. After the Marshals clear a site, the barracks will maintain security and prevent illegitimate operators from returning,” he said. He disclosed that the Mining Marshals had recovered more than 100 mining sites from illegal operators and handed them back to their legitimate owners, with scores of suspects arrested and undergoing prosecution, but noted the Marshals could not permanently secure recovered sites. He called for the Marshals to be strengthened with additional personnel, equipment, armament and high technology gadgets so the unit can maintain a presence in every local government area.
Jurisdiction watch: this is the enforcement half of Nigeria’s mining reset, running in parallel with the Nigeria United States minerals committee inaugurated three days earlier. The state is offering investors a formal sector on one track while militarising the informal sector’s exclusion on the other. Whether a battalion is actually funded and deployed, and whether recovered sites stay recovered, are the two facts that decide if the policy is real.