The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has called on the youths of Kogi State to curtail the damage to their environment by convincing their elders, community leaders and local authorities to stop covering up illegal miners.

This came as the youths from coal-producing communities in Ankpa Local Council Area of the state protested at the ministry in Abuja over alleged illegal coal mining activities in their communities.

This comes as four Chinese nationals have been arrested in Niger State for allegedly operating an unauthorised mining site in Maiya’aki Village in Lapai Local Council Area.

The arrests followed an order by the Niger State Government after the Commissioner for Mineral Resources, Muhammad Danjuma, conducted an on-the-spot inspection of the mining location.

The commissioner’s intervention came after the Emir of Lapai, Umar Bago Tafida III, received reports concerning suspected mining activities allegedly by foreign nationals in the community.

At the mining site, the Chinese nationals were reportedly unable to produce valid licences and permits authorising their operations as requested by the commissioner.

Following the development, Danjuma ordered their arrest and directed that the remaining operators stay at the site. The four suspects were subsequently handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for investigation and appropriate action.

Meanwhile, the protesters, under the aegis of Concerned Kogi Youths Against Environmental Degradation, accused mining operators in Kogi East of violating environmental and regulatory standards, allegedly leaving communities with damaged roads, destroyed farmlands, polluted water sources and worsening living conditions.

Addressing the protesters, Alake thanked them for joining the government’s campaign against illegal mining and urged them to engage traditional rulers, community leaders and local authorities to stop shielding illegal miners.

Alake, who was represented by the Director of Special Duties, Frank Odom, noted that several committees headed by the ministry’s permanent secretaries have visited Kogi to probe similar complaints.

The minister said investigations have revealed that illegal miners are not aliens but indigenes involved in illegitimate livelihoods with the support of elders, traditional rulers and local government functionaries.

According to him, “their illegal activities are killing the mining companies. In the coal fields, they are stealing the minerals of mining companies which have paid money to obtain licences and will still pay royalties for the minerals extracted. Illegal miners don’t pay for licences. They don’t pay royalties. They enrich themselves at the expense of the Nigerian people.”

Earlier, the co-ordinator of the protesters, Comrade Isaiah Ijele, said the protest was to draw the minister’s attention to the environmental degradation occurring in the Kogi East senatorial district, particularly in the Ankpa and Omala communities.

Ijele alleged that mining operations were being carried out in violation of environmental and regulatory standards, leaving many communities with damaged roads, destroyed farmland, polluted water sources, and worsening living conditions.