The Niger State Ministry for Mineral Resources has cracked down an illegal mining site at Sauken Gwari community in Minna.
The development followed urgent calls on the state government and other authorities by residents of the area to rescue them from menace of illegal mining activities.
They explained that all efforts to chase the illegal miners out of a plot of land where they carry out their mining activities in the area failed as they continued to return and even threatened the owner of land.
The residents claimed the illegal miners even went as far as disputing ownership of the land, and therefore, called on the state government for a quick intervention on the matter.
Responding to the call, the Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Alhaji Garba Sabo Yahaya, who is the co-chairman of Task Force Committee recently constituted by the state government on Illegal Mining, visited area alongside the Permanent Secretary, directors and security personnel.
The team who took a decisive action on the issue shot down the illegal mining site located near Brighter Road 5 in Sauken Gwari community of Minna and asserted its authority to curbing unauthorized mining activities in the area and state as a whole.
During the visit, Mallam Isah Attairu, the caretaker of the alleged plot told the the Task Force committee that the land originally belong to an Igbo man who got tired of the disturbances caused by the illegal miners.
He explained that in a desperate move to find solution to the problem, the original owner of the land then decided to sell it to some miners who had left the land in his care.
Lamenting their activities on the land, Attahiru said only women and children came during the daytime while the youth arrived in the early hours of the morning, around 2:00 am.
“Despite efforts to drive them away, the illegal miners continued to return and even threatened me, disputing ownership of the land.”
Afterwards, the team also inspected El-Amin University illegal mining site in Minna, the state capital.