The Alatorin of Atorin-Ijesa, Atakumosa East local government, Osun State, Oba Omololu Afilaka has berated the unabated corrupt practices and illegal activities of artisanal miners in his community.
He made the on Wednesday at the 5th West African Mining Host Communities Indaba. A three-day event, organized by Global Right with support from Ford Foundation and in collaboration with African Coalition for Corporate Accountability, ACCA, and Coalition for Human Rights in Development.
The colloquium that has as its theme, “Contextualizing Green Mining Within Free, Prior, and Informed Consent,” holding at Gurara Hall, Rockview Classic Hotel, Wuse, Abuja.
Alatorin in his goodwill message at the opening session, emphasized on the dark side of mining activities in Atorin-Ijesa and his quest for responsible mining operations to change the situation for better.
Oba Omololu Afilaka who appreciated Global Right for the opportunity given to mining host communities to share their experiences said:
"In our experience in Atorin-Ijesa which neighbors the cradle of Yoruba civilization, Ile-Ife and Ifewara, fortunately, as God pleases, my community of about 25 villages is blessed with a good vein of gold, lithium and other gem stones.
"But, you now ask, is this a blessing in the real sense of it or a curse? From God it's a blessing to us but in reality it's a curse! It's something that is destabilzing my community... It's something that brought pollution over our water bodies, introducing the likes of arsenic, mercury and and all other hazardous chemicals they are using in their illegal mining operations. It is something that brought a lot of people that should never be there... from farther field like Katsina, Zamfara... They are our brothers, we've always lived together, but we've never had them this much.
"The situation in the country is such that there's security issue. That's why I was surprised when the Emir of Gusau mentioned that they are even having the same problem back home in Gusau. In my community right now, we don't know who is who? We are facing the influx of people we don't know... they came from far, they destroy our Cocoa, palms, water and plunder our gold.
"In my community, we are lucky to have gotten mining license. I formed a community company, Atorin Community Mining and Trading Company Limited. I applied for a mining license. The idea I had in my head was, if people could come from as far a China to come and prospect our mineral, why can't we do it legally? So, what I've done was to apply for exploration license and fortunately, we got it and I started searching for investors. I went to Canada, Saudi Arabia, England and South Africa. Eventually, we found a UK based company that was interested in us.
"We were on the verge of getting close to about $100 million investment in my community, thanks to the UK company. People that were here the last time we had this colloquium could remember that I was so excited that we got a licence and we would eventually get rid of illegal Chinese miners. But just then, we now have terrorism at our doorstep. We are now faced with illegal miners would not let the people that we have given our license to on behalf of the community access the land.
"It got so bad that on the 6th of August, just last month, I was almost abducted by one of these illegal miners operating with a cartel. The illegal miners are not acting in isolation. They are acting in cohort with some of our politicians.
"Our people perish because of lack of knowledge, so the Bible says. And you find out that while you are talking of an investment of about $100m into a community of 25 villages, and you find people being given N100,000 or N2m to scuffle what we are trying to do." Oba Afilaka remarked
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