Cross River State has issued a 5-day ultimatum to illegal miners to leave the communities where they carry out their activities in Yakurr, Biase and Akamkpa Local Government Areas.
In the last two months there have been reported influx of strange people, suspected to come from the North and the Sahel region into Agoi Ibami and other communities of Yakurr Local Government Area.
They have also invaded the restricted Cross River National Park, under the guise of illegally mining for gold and other precious stones.
Senior Special Adviser to Governor Bassey Otu on State Security, Maj. Gen. Obono Ubi (rtd), issued the ultimatum on behalf of the state government during a security stakeholders town hall meeting on illegal mining in Ugep.
The meeting was attended by traditional rulers, security chieftains, and registered miners, mostly from the affected communities in Biase, Akamkpa. Yakurr and other surrounding communities.
At the meeting, the stakeholders, spoke about their fears and concerns over the security threats posed by the influx of the strange people.
A traditional ruler, Chief Etebom Moma, at the meeting, raised an alarm over the massive number of foreigners inhabiting the forests in some communities and on the fringes of the Cross River National Park.
“I foresee danger, serious danger. These people have not flocked into communities in Yakurr and nearby local government areas for only gold, but they have ulterior motives,” he warned.
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The royal father asserted that the motives of the foreigners are inimical to the interests of the state, disclosing that over 2, 000 of them with many of them armed are in the communities in Yakurr Local Government Area.
“I pray that the high insecurity witnessed in the northern parts of Nigeria shouldn’t be our lot in our state. Therefore, I call on the state government to rise now and be proactive,” the traditional ruler advised.
Speaking to issue the ultimatum, the governor’s aide blamed indigenes of the affected communities for conniving with the illegal miners.
He said without their active support for peanuts, the illegal miners will not have the confidence to entrench themselves and perpetuate illegal businesses to the detriment of community.
Maj. Gen. Ubi (rtd) alleged ed that he has “several video clips showing that our own youths, armed with local weapons, assist these foreign illegal miners to devastate Ago Ibami and other communities and forests.”
He asked local chiefs and traditional heads to fish out the boys, explaining that the state government is not against anybody coming to Cross River State for legitimate business, but is against those who are in the state to promote illegality and trouble.
