House: Influx of Illegal Local, Foreign Miners Causing Unrest in Benue

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives has lamented that the influx of illegal local and foreign miners infiltrating Kwande Local Government of Benue State was causing daily security unrest, environmental pollution and possible food crisis

The House said if the trend was left unchecked, Benue would become the next banditry hotspot just like the case of Zamfara State over the last several years due to the illegal gold mining.

The decision of the House followed the adoption of a motion on the need for urgent intervention in the Nigeria-Cameroon refugee crisis, banditry and environmental pollution arising from the discovery and mining of gold in Kwande Local Government of Benue State, moved at the plenary by Hon. Terseer Ugbor.

Moving the motion, the lawmaker said Kwande bordered Cameroon on the North, Cross River to the East and Taraba to the West.

He decried the fact that the local government had suffered violent attacks termed as farmers-herders clashes leaving many indigenes either dead, badly injured or homeless, and without farmlands and a source of livelihood for over 10 years, especially the people of Turan and Ikyurav-ya districts.

He stressed that the Nigerian-Cameroonian international border through Kwande had been approved with the potential to enhance trade between the neighbouring countries and create massive economic activities.

However, he contended that with the discovery of precious minerals, the clashes between Cameroonian and Nigerian communities had begun to escalate due to the rush to own these precious minerals, adding to the already volatile security situation in the area.

The House, therefore, urged, “the National Security Adviser alongside the Security Agencies to review the security situation within the region and the Nigerian-Cameroonian Border areas in Benue and to implement urgent and proactive steps to curb further deterioration of the peace and security in the region.”

It also encouraged the Nigerian Immigration and Nigerian Customs Service to establish an international border post and necessary infrastructure to enhance commerce and trade between the countries.