Dachung Bagos, a lawmaker representing Jos South, East Federal Constituency has recommended a law that will recognise locals mining in Barkin Ladi and other conflict-ravaged local councils in Plateau State.
He stated this two days ago during Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily program. The lawmaker advised that the government should engage and register local miners, instead of calling them illegal miners. According to him, the government would be able to identify the genuine miners in the sites and thus prevent suspicious activities in the areas.
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He said: “The law should be able to recognise them, the government should engage them. We were able to have an engagement with the Ministry of Solid Minerals, and the current governor has gone to the Ministry twice to have an engagement with them. And we are trying as much as possible that the law should be amended that the miners we have within our communities, instead of calling the illegal miners, we should able to call them artisanal miners so government to be able to identify the genuine miners and give them licences.
“But when government tag them as illegal miners, the real illegal people will come and take over the territory. So the law should be able to recognise them, the government should engage them.”
He, however, dismissed that the miners are being protected by the security agents, adding that the mining sites are no longer accessible.
“It is going to be so absurd to say that these miners are guarded by security agents, and we know that these mining sites that we have in Plateau can no longer be accessed,” he said.
GOVERNMENT NEGLIGENCE
He lamented that the sites suffered decades-long negligence from the Ministry of Mineral Resources and this exacerbated the security challenges faced in the areas.
“Over the years, there is that negligence from the ministry. They usually term some of our miners are illegal miners,” he said.
Jimwan Dazong, a retired police commissioner from conflict-torn Mangu LGA also spoke during the programme.
The former police boss attributed the challenges faced in the areas to poor infrastructure that frustrates the mobilisation of security agents to some troubled areas.
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He said the lingering clashes in Plateau have an element of the economy, “because you will find out that in the places where these people are displaced, the attackers occupied the places and grab the land.”
The retired officer decried how things fell apart among the neighbouring communities which developed mistrust among the locals.
“I am in my 60s now, we were living side by side with Fulanis. We married each other. We collaborate during celebrations. But things are no longer the same. In the 2001 Plateau crisis, there had been no crisis in Mangu, but this time, our area is the worst hit. Houses were destroyed, this is the rainy season. They destroyed farmlands. Cows are the livelihood of Fulani man and farm is the livelihood of the Mwagavuls. So if you destroyed his farmland you don’t need his survival,” he stated.
RANCHES NOT SOLUTION
Speaking on the government’s plan for food security, Dazong said enabling a peaceful environment in the conflict areas should be more prioritised than establishing ranches for herders.
“When we talk about food security, the first is the security of the places where the food is produced,” he said. “Unless when we tackle security challenges in areas where food is produced, then we are on the right course. Ranching is a good policy but the security issue needs to be solved first before any other thing.”
The lawmaker shares the same view, saying Plateau does not want ranching, but rather, farm inputs that will revamp farming in the agrarian state.
“For the government to buy land for somebody to rear his cattle while this is not what we need. But give us grains, fertilizer, and security,” he stated.
He said the people of the state have rejected the policy because most of them are farmers, stressing that the federal government wanted to make them second-class citizens.
Plateau, tagged ‘the Home of peace and Tourism’ suffered over two-decade-long crises that led to the destruction of hundreds of lives and property worth millions of naira.
However, Mangu, in the central zone of the state was peaceful until the May 2023 face-off between the Fulani communities who are mostly herders and the Mwaghavul farmers. The lingering crisis had claimed hundreds of lives.
