By Ebube Bruno
There is mounting pressure in Cross River State, South South Nigeria, over increasing encroachment of mining activities into protected areas of the Cross River National Park.
The latest incident erupted at the weekend following the arrest of 17 artisan miners from Ekuri Eyenyen and Etara communities in Etung Local Government Area of the State by the Special Anti-Poaching Squad of the Cross River National Park.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, the Conservator of Parks, CP Joseph Ntui Assam, said their arrest followed actionable intelligence. He said, “The park is a prohibited area. Activities such as mining, hunting, logging, farm encroachment, water poisoning and a host of other activities are prohibited within the National Park.”
CP Assam said the activities of the miners have “far-reaching implications, especially in the security of the State, the economy, land degradation, poisoning of the environment and impact on the health of humans. As I talk with you now, most of the streams and agricultural lands around Etara, Ekuri Eyenyen are polluted. The people don’t have good sources of drinking water.
“Apart from these artisan miners, there are also instances where the Mining Cadastre Office in Abuja and even the Federal Mines Office in Calabar issues mining licences and gives approval for companies to commence mining operations in the National Park,” he said, adding, “This is totally unacceptable because it does not only contravene the provisions of the National Park Service Act, it also violates Section 3, subsection 2 of the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Acts 2007 and its Regulation of 2011.”
The conservator, while parading the suspects, said statements by the suspects and community members indicate that a certain Ekpo Mbang Eno, an alleged member of the Cross River State Anti-illegal Mining Committee, hired the suspects. He said they will be charged to court.
Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Mineral Resources in Cross River State, Hon. Effiom-Ekaha Otu, said the ministry is aware of a company named B4LIVE registered by Ekpo Mbang Eno. He confirmed that the company is profiled with the ministry and, as such, licensed by the federal government.
He, however, said it was possible that the mining licence granted to them may have overlapped into the reserved areas.
He said if that is the case, it would be hasty to tag the indigenous miner as “illegal”, saying the Cadastral Office in Abuja should instead be held accountable for such oversights.
“You may get a license, and the license overlaps into the reserved area. It is now in the place of the miner to bring it to the attention of the Cadastral Office, which will in turn remove the area from his licence.”
Checks at the Federal Mines Office indicate that Ekpo Mbang Eno’s B4Live Integrated Services was granted a small-scale mining lease/license for two cadastral units in Ekuri, Etung LGA.
Not ruling out the possibility of the license stretching into a reserved area, the Federal Mines Officer, Cross River State Engineer Ayelabola Olubunmi, said such incidents were not uncommon and that the National Park has always brought such to their attention.
Speaking with Ekpo Mbang Eno, he explained that he is properly licensed to mine in the area, although he was not aware of its status as a restricted area until
“this whole thing blew up. They should properly demarcate these places. I don’t like what is happening. I always make sure to follow the law; obtain necessary documents and gain the consent of the communities where I operate. ”
He said the 17 miners arrested on his lease were not hired by him. “I hired 40 miners and 10 supervisors. When the rangers went into the forest, they saw 67 miners and brought them to the community leaders, who confirmed that they gave consent for 50 miners to prospect in their forest. They identified the 50 miners. It was later discovered that others merely accompanied the 50 to the site. These people were not arrested because they were mining in protected areas. If it were so, they would have arrested all 67 persons. They were initially arrested because they exceeded the community – approved number.”
Presenting his documents, including mining lease, approval, company registration, payment letters and community consent agreement, Eno said there was no way for him to have known that the licence and approval granted to him were in a protected area.
Stakeholders have therefore called on the Federal Mining Cadastral Abuja and the Federal Mines Office Calabar to conduct due diligence and stop giving licenses and approvals to miners within the reserved areas such as the national park.
A stakeholder who did not want to be named said, “We keep having these issues, creating problems for legitimate business owners. Even when you complain, they will tell you they have a target to meet. ”
Another investor said, “Our problem is these Cadastral Office people. They just sit there in Abuja and cast their coordinates to the right or to the left. A Cadastral unit is equivalent to the size of 20 football pitches; that’s how large it is! So while you may know where your lease starts, you may not know where it ends; whether it encroaches into another community, state, or into a protected area. We don’t need all these issues, especially now that we are trying to encourage indigenous miners to get into the system and develop the nation’s solid mineral sector. ”
It remains to be seen in the coming days how authorities treat this issue, which appears to be a structural problem with Nigeria’s mining licensing and cadastral system.