The Commissioner of Police in Cross River State, Grimah Gyogon has confirmed that there has been an influx of illegal miners in some communities in Yakurr LGA of the state.
In an interview, the police boss disclosed that the Force has since raised surveillance teams to monitor them.
But in a statement released Wednesday afternoon, former presidential adviser, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla raised alarm over the activities of the foreigners, saying they have become a very big security threat not only to his communities but to the state.
He disclosed that the strangers were in their hundreds, identifying them as people from the Sahel region of Africa, namely Chadians, Mauritanians, Malians and others.
Obono-Obla who is also a traditional chief in Yakurr LGA said the strange men have invaded communities like Agoi Ibami, Agoi Ekpo, Nko and Itu Agoi, were armed and are into illegal minings.
“We have received reports of the influx of hundreds of strange-looking people probably from the Sahelian region of West Africa into the Agoi Ibami, Agoi Ekpo, Nko and Itu Agoi areas of Yakurr LGA.
“They are into illegal mining activities on an unprecedented scale that requires emergency action by the Government of Cross River State in collaboration with law enforcement agencies.
“The activities of these strange elements are inimical to the security and well-being of the people of these parts of the LGA nay Nigeria.”
He enumerated that the Agoi community is a vast but largely neglected reservoir of natural resources, including forest, gold, and other solid minerals, which have caught the fancy of these nefarious illegal miners and illegal loggers.
According to him, the government has neglected the place and abysmally failed to nip in the menace in the bud.
He described the Sahelians as vicious foreign criminal syndicates that are part of the International racketeering of miners who are all out to use criminality to exploit the resources of the people to satisfy the greed of international capitalists.
He called on the state and federal governments to immediately focus on the security breaches and other criminality that these international syndicates carrying out illegal mining of gold are bringing to the Agoi region of Yakurr Local Government Area before the situation escalates and mirrors the crisis in Zamfara State.
A similar situation also played out in the Ifumkpa community of Akamkpa LGA within the Cross River National Parks, CRNP, where over 2000 men from the same Sahel region and parts of northern Nigeria have been prospecting for gold in the last two years or more.
They have often confronted the Park Rangers and other security men who attempt to dislodge them from the CRNP.
The village head of Ifumkpa community, Chief Cletus Ibuni said, “We don’t know these people that have invaded our community and taken over our forests in the name of prospecting for gold. They are so many, some, I’m told are armed.
“They don’t bother to discuss with us. They don’t pay any royalties to us. They rather prefer to deal with some of our youths, influencing them.
“There was a time we challenged the situation at the risk of our lives. The youths usually overwhelmed and threatened us because they had the energy and backing of the big men behind the gold mining.
Armed Malians, Mauritanians, others invade Cross River communities for natural resources