23rd November, 2011
Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State has ordered the suspension of all forms of surface mining in Badagry area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria, as a result of environmental degradation.
The ban is contained in an Executive Order issued by the governor directing the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources to enforce compliance with the order.
The suspension is sequel to a petition written by a resident in Badagry, informing the governor about the activities of sand dredgers in the area and how they had degraded the environment.
The petitioner attached over 20 pictures of environmental degradation to the petition, warning that if surface sand dredging activities were not stopped in the area, it might lead to a disaster, like the Tsunami and others that had occurred in the Western world.
Informing the sand dredgers of the governor’s directive at a meeting in his office on Tuesday, the Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Taofiq Tijani, said the miners would have to stop surface sand dredging immediately according to the directive.
He said the ministry and the taskforce had been mandated by the governor to enforce the suspension, saying that there was nothing he could do to salvage the situation since it was an Executive Order.
“The governor has approved the closure of all surface sand mining in Badagry. Mining of sand is now restricted to shallow Badagry creeks. It is an executive order and I cannot contest it,†he told the miners.
He said the miners could form association to be able to monitor the activities of illegal sand miners in the area and check their activities.
One of the sand miners, Chief Hakeem Abogun, faulted the pictures, saying they might not be as a result of activities of sand mining and appeal to the government to do an investigation and on the spot assessment of the area to see if the claims were true.
— Kazeem Ugbodaga