Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has directed owners of burrow pits whose activities have resulted in the destruction of residential buildings to rebuild the affected houses for their owners.
The directive followed the closure of a burrow pit in Umelu Community, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area, where the operator was ordered to reconstruct houses damaged by excavation activities.
The Edo State Government also arrested two operators at another burrow pit in Ogheghe Community, where more than 30 houses have reportedly collapsed into the excavation site.
The arrests were made during an on-the-spot assessment by the Edo State Public Property Protection Committee (EPPPC) at the affected sites in Ogheghe.
Residents of the community had earlier staged a peaceful protest, calling on Governor Okpebholo to intervene and stop further burrow pit operations in the area over fears of additional destruction.
Speaking after inspecting the sites, Chairman of the EPPPC, Eugene Okoloise, described the situation as an eyesore, warning that the entire Ogheghe Community could be swallowed by the expanding burrow pits within six months if urgent action is not taken.
“The place is an eyesore. We invited the owner of the burrow pit. And we are going to do our investigation. A lot of them that have encroached into houses, we’ve used an alternative dispute resolution in the office here.
“Because we told them to go and build for the people involved and they adhered to it. In Umelu. The burrow pit owners are building for them there. We also asked them to barricade the pit so that children will not fall into them.
“We went to Ogheghe. We saw the burrow pits and the houses that are about caving in. But we’ve not been able to see the owner of the house.
“But we want to equally use this medium to reach out to the burrow pit owners. They cannot continue like this. Otherwise, we’ll send so many of them to jail.
“Our Governor is a non-nonsense person. We have asked the former lawmaker that owns one of the pits to come and show evidence that the community encroached into his mining area.
“Even if those areas belong to him, he has to do things with human face. When those people were building, who did he report to that people encroached on his site?
“They can’t continue like that. This is a new government. This is the government of Senator Monday Okpebholo, who has come to make things right in the state. I will join him to do it.”