Miner Seeks Minister’s Intervention Over State Govt’s Interference

A coal miner in Enugu State, Queendaline Augustine, has bemoaned the interference of the Enugu State government with her mining site.

Augustine, who owns Queensec Global Resources Limited, with a mining title number 42791 in Enugu North local government area of Enugu state, sought the intervention of the minister of solid minerals development, Dr Dele  Alake, in her plight.

She claimed that senior personal adviser (SPA) to the Enugu State governor on solid minerals, Samuel Okoro, who she said was a fellow miner before his appointment, not only denied her access to her site but also carried out illegal mining on her site, in addition to distributing her site to five other miners.

However, the state government, through Samuel Okoro, has said it wants the complainer to adhere to safe mining practices and pay some approved charges.

Augustine, who spoke with select journalists in Abuja at the weekend, also accused Okoro, who is also the state’s MIREMCO chairman, of abusing his office, intimidating her and other miners, and forcefully taking products from their sites.

LEADERSHIP reports that states in Nigeria have the Mineral Resources and Environmental Committee (MIREMCO) composed of federal and state government officials as well as private sector operators for the management of mining related issues in each state.

According to Augustine Okoro doubles as MIRENCO chairman in the state, special adviser to the governor on solid minerals as well as the owner of a mining firm called Aka Aja Aja Multipurpose Cooperative Society, which has a mine site that shares boundaries with her own.

Augustine, whose firm, Queensec Global Resources Ltd, has a five-year small scale mining lease (SSML) for sand, sandstone, shale, clay, and coal, also has a complaint against a mining firm, African Pits and Quarry (APQ), from which she is seeking N100 million compensation for breach of contract.  According to her, her firm had a valid agreement with APQ to carry out coal mining exploration and drilling on her mineral title, but the company instead carried out mining activities at the behest of another firm, Aka Aja Aja, which is owned by the governor’s aide, Okoro.

She said, “Sam Okoro called me one day, saying he was under instruction from the state governor to move some coals from our sites to a location somewhere. I refused to cooperate with him because I smelled a rat. Thereafter, he said all those mine pits were abandoned sites despite our valid mining licence from Abuja. Because of this, we never had any peaceful communication again.

“To my surprise, he arranged a truck overnight using African Pit and Quarry equipment to excavate truckloads of coal and took them to a paper mill site at Eleme somewhere in Enugu. The mill’s owner was arrested after one of my colleagues, Mrs Uchechukwu Agbachi, who followed it up, reported it to the police.”

Augustine also called on the state government to stop its monopoly policy on solid minerals, which forced miners in the state to sell their products exclusively to the state government.

The miner, who said she was beaten mercifully when she tried to access her site, called for the release of her colleague, Uchechukwu Ogbachi, who is pregnant,  from police detention after she was arrested in the presence of the Zonal Mines Officer, Mr Oluwole Tunbosun, on December 11 on the orders of the SPA when she had gone on her behalf for the coordinate boundary delineation at the mine site.

Augustine brandished petition letters her firm had written to the permanent secretary, the Minister of Solid Mineral Development, the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), and the Zonal Mines officer, as well as one by her colleague Agbachi’s lawyer to the Inspector General of Police, accusing Okoro and others of conspiring to mine and steal coal from her mineral title.

When LEADERSHIP contacted the Enugu zonal mines officer, Tunbosun, he acknowledged that his office had received Augustines’s petition and was looking into it. However, he would not speak further without official authorisation.

In his response, the senior adviser to  Governor Peter Mba on Sold Minerals, Okoro, did not directly respond to the allegations of encroachment, intimidation and mineral theft; however, he said that the state government had engaged with Augustine over compensation and mining practices.

When contacted, the special assistant to the minister on media, Segun Tomori, said the matter was undergoing due process.