Chinese Miners, Community Clash In Nasarawa

For 17 days now – since January 25 - Kenyang Mining Company Limited, a Chinese firm mining columbine in Udege-Mbeki community of Udege Development Area, west of Nasarawa State, has ceased operations, barely months after they commenced activities in the solid minerals rich zone of the state. Installations including electric panels and water pumps used to process the solid minerals were uprooted by irate youths of the area, who besieged the mining site in protest against the firm’s alleged implementation of a doctored Community Development Agreement (CDA).

The youths alleged that the agreement being implemented by the Chinese does not reflect the original understanding between the parties, and only undermines the community for the entrepreneurial interest of the firm, and certain prominent figures in the area.

Kenyang opened the site to mine the solid minerals between October  and November last year, after acquiring the site from Vactis Tin Mines, a former company which operated there before the coming of the Chinese. Kenyang is operating there with two licenses for exploration, as well as mining, respectively, for 25 years, over a land size of about seven square kilometers, Weekly Trust learnt.

According to the parties involved in the controversial agreement, the firm mined within the first two months with difficulty, because the community would not concede to certain issues.

First, there was the issue of who to be signatory to the proposed CDA to be wrapped between the firm and the community, to enable the miners acquire a letter of consent from the traditional ruler in the area. According to a petition written by some youths, seeking the intervention of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly (NSHA), the agreement was to be signed by the management of the firm, the paramount ruler of the area, Alhaji Halilu Bala Usman, and the community youth leader.

A copy of the said proposed agreement made available to Weekly Trust showed that the firm was to provide amenities and infrastructure, as well as employment to both skilled and unskilled indigenes of Udege-Mbeki, Odu, Eyenu and Agbazo, and scholarship to indigenes of the same area, within the first five years of its operations there. The value of the items was put at N200 million, or 20 per cent of the firm’s annual accruals. A specific aspect of the said proposed agreement was that the firm will construct a dam for its use, as well as for the benefit of the community, to add to the construction of five motorized boreholes across the area.

However, Weekly Trust received a copy of another agreement, also attached to the letter of complaint sent to the assembly, in which an additional signatory, in the person of the administrator of Udege, Simon Obagu, endorsed. In this version of the agreement, some disparities were observed, in virtually all items agreed upon for provision by the firm.

The disparities are the development that led to the violent attack on the mining site, by irate youths of the area, who had to storm into the premises of the company twice, to complete the     damage of some installations.

The youths who chanted local songs, said they were compelled to take   the violent option after various protests to get Osu Ajiri (paramount ruler of Afo land), Alhaji Halilu Bala Usman to stop the Chinese from using a dam which they are laying claim to, as an assert and only source of domestic water to the community.

The youths who spoke to Weekly Trust, days after the attack - through their leader, Comrade Ibrahim Ahmed Mbeki - admitted they stormed the mining site twice, to complete the damage, saying they did so because the Chinese had been implementing a doctored agreement which short-changes, rather than fetches a desired corporate responsibility programme for the host community.

They alleged that the “doctored agreement” does not respect the wishes of the community, including that the firm must abstain from using the dam to process columbine, because doing so will contaminate, as well as dry up the community’s only source of water.

“We protested like two times to the palace of the Osu Ajiri so that he will stop the Chinese from using the dam, but to no avail. So we decided to stop them ourselves,” Comrade Mbeki told Weekly Trust.

The action of the youths further strained relationship with youths of the host community, as they vowed not to allow further  mining there, until the firm stops using the dam.

On February 2, two truckloads of armed Mobile Police (MOPOL), were stationed there at the mine.  Weekly Trust learnt that the extent of damage at the dam include electrical panels, water pumps and other installations. Mr. Jimmy Tao, the Project Development Manager, Mr. Goddy Apande, the Local Manager, and Olufemi Oluabamise, the Assistant Manager, who led this reporter to the dam, said they restrained policemen attached to the site, from acting to stop the irate youths.

The Executive Manager, Mr. Bear Xiang, confirmed the incident, but directed the Local Manager, Mr. Apande, a Nigerian to speak officially.

Apande  said the youths had an ulterior motive, explaining that the dam was not their target because, according to him, “it contains stagnant water which was already contaminated and not safe for domestic use.” He alleged that youths had been demanding for a potion of the mining site, to mine illegally, while the firm insisted it cannot part with any part of the site after getting a Federal Government lease.

He said the dam belongs to the firm, and not the community, explaining that it was one of the asserts the company acquired from Vactis Tin Mines, a former company which operated there before the coming of the Chinese.

Nasarawa State police spokesman, DSP Michael Ada, confirmed the dispute between the Chinese and the community, saying the police had moved and arrested one Yahaya Sabo Ibrahim. He said the police in the area were investigating the matter, after restoring normalcy there.

The state legislature, on Tuesday, entertained the letter of complaint from the youths, and mandated its committee on Public Complaints and Petitions, led by Mohammed Okpede, to invite the feuding parties and take their submissions.

The youths, in the petition signed by Comrade Mbeki and nine others, prayed the legislature to act and save the community from alleged exploitation. The petition claimed that the Chinese firm violated an agreement with the community, by making use of a dam, which they said “is the only primary source of water and the sustaining point of our wells and boreholes.”

The petition alleged that the management of Kenyang is implementing a doctored agreement in which their leader was made to sign “under duress.” They also said they are not being used by any politician as claimed by other parties in dispute.
Mohammed Baba Ibaku, the lawmaker representing the area in the assembly  told Weekly Trust  that he did not instigate the youths, because he has nothing to reap from such actions.

“Meanwhile, I received full briefings on the feud, and I have sat with the police area commander covering those parts of the state, and other stakeholders for talks. We have all agreed that the matter be resolved amicably in the interest of peace,” Ibaku said further.