Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris, has ordered the Security Agencies to takeover the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGIM) site in Yauri Local Government, pending the formal regularisation with the State Ministry of Mine and Solid Minerals.
He gave the directives on Thursday during an inspection tour of the site following recent crisis between the artisans and the company (PAGIM) which claim one life.
The governor ordered that all sorts of mining activities be stopped for the mean time, pending regularisation and restoration of peace in the area.
This, he said, is with a view to ensuring sanity and peace for the benefit of the host community and the society at large.
“The security agencies should take charge of the entire area and I am appealing to all artisans to formally register with the relevant authorities to avoid any form of crisis or breach of peace in the area,” he said.
The governor urged the youths in the area to embrace dialogue, so that any form of misunderstanding would be resolved amicably, insisting that no society would develop in an atmosphere of chaos, rancho, acrimony or breach of peace.
While encouraging the youths to always embrace peace and harmony amongst them, Dr Idris admonished them to shun anything that would ignite crisis, haterate and disunity among them.
The mining site, located at Maraba Yauri in Ngask Local Government Area of the state had been a place where artisans are making brisk business.
Responding, the leader of the company, Musa Dantata attributed the crisis to the inability of people to follow due process, while appealing to Kebbi State Governor to instruct all miners to formally register with appropriate authorities.
By registration with appropriate authorities, he said, crisis would not only be curtailed but also due process would be respected.
