22,373kg of blue sapphire and other precious stones were retrieved from illegal miners operating in the state by the Taraba State Special Task Force on Environmental Protection and Illegal Mining.
The Task Force Chairman, Brig. Gen. Jeremiah Faransa (Rtd) added that more than 100 illegal miners, including foreigners, had been detained and charged in the previous two months.
According to Faransa, the illegal miners’ 22,373 kg of sapphire that they had been hiding was discovered at Mayo Sena in Taraba State’s Sardauna LGA, and they were apprehended in various locations throughout the state.
He bemoaned the terrible harm that both legal and illegal miners, including those engaged in the indiscriminate felling of rosewood trees, also known as Madrid, were doing to the state.
He stated that there was an Executive Order in effect suspending mining and logging operations in the state and warned those engaged in these activities to immediately cease operations.
The state’s arable lands that are suitable for farming have been degraded, he claimed, as a result of the unchecked mining activities of the state’s miners. He claimed that some communities have stopped farming as a result of the degradation of their lands.
In a similar vein, he disapproved of the mining industry’s use of young people as cheap labor, which led to an increase in the proportion of school dropouts.
According to him,” Over 20,000 legal and illegal people are mining in Taraba state. The illegal ones are camouflaging as labourers under the legal mining companies.
“It was in the Arufu and Akwana communities in the Wukari local government area of the state that I knew we were finished. What we saw is a sad tale. These communities have been excavated and destroyed by the activities of both the legal and illegal miners.
“The land in these communities are no longer suitable for farming or even building. They have now abandoned farming completely and every household in these communities have become miners.
“Also in Dogon Yasu, teenagers who are supposed to be in school are being exploited by the mining companies and are used as cheap labour.
“When we interviewed most of them, we discovered that they are being given N500 or N1000 a day. And that is why you see that there is an increase in the number of dropouts in Northern Nigeria.”
He however stressed that the state is not against the activities of investors in the mining sector, but is concerned about due diligence and environmental protection.
