As the activities of armed imported illegal miners remain unabated in the pastoral community of Dangbala, in Akoko Edo Local Area of Edo State, four suspects, believed to be the arrowheads of the illegal mining cartel, have been arrested and detained at the state Command of the Police in Benin City.
Dangbala, a purely rustic community have been in the news for the wrong reasons in recent times as the activities of the illegal miners unsettle the quiet community, setting it on edge with the attendant security challenges bothering on rape, harassment of the locals and palpable tension occasioned by violent clashes among the governor illegal miners.
Tribune Online gathered that the suspects were apprehended by the local vigilantes operating the community since the activities of the illegal miners became a threat to the peace and tranquillity of the community.
The detained suspects, it was further gathered, had last week, alleged to have viciously attacked and injured one, Mr Peter Adelabu Kokumo, at Oketegbe mining site where the illegal mining activities are currently said to be taking place with the support of some community elders.
Spokesman of the community, Collins Nicholas, who addressed newsmen in Benin on the development on Thursday, demanded the prosecution of those arrested in connection with illegal mining in the community.
He said those behind the illegal mining in the community had also resorted to frivolous petition writing against those opposed to their criminal activities to mislead the public and thereby call Police authority to unmask them.
The Special Adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki on Security matters, Haruna Yusuf, when contacted also confirmed the arrest of four illegal miners and noted that the matter was being handled by the police Command in Benin.
According to Nicholas, “Presently, illegal mining still strive in my community day and night. Those benefiting boasted that they are untouchable.
“Even when local security (vigilante) came, they prevented them from gaining access to the sites. Secondly, they are using the name of our traditional head to write a petition against those opposed to them in Dangbala.
“This is a traditional ruler that is bedridden and can’t even talk nor take a decision. On the 10th of November, 2021, we were invited to the state CID on allegation of threat to life and breach of peace but to our dismay, the said petitioners couldn’t show up. We are demanding that the petitioners should be produced.
“Even when the police visited the community they discover that our traditional head was bedridden. It was at that point they now asked us to go and settle that was when they brought hundreds of illegal miners that invaded our community.
“Those faceless petition writers are the ones destroying Dangbala because as I speak, there are guns and dangerous weapons in the community and our people are no longer safe.
“We are calling on all well-meaning Akoko-Edo people world over to speak out against this invasion and the wanton stealing of our God’s given resources. Those already arrested should be prosecuted because we want peace and development.
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