BREAKING:  Cross River: Over 200 Illegal Miners From Sahel Region Invade Yakurr Communities

Ndifereke BASSEY

OVER 200 Illegal miners from Sahel Region have been arrested in some Cross River communities.

The illegale miners were arrested in a sting operation led by the Cross River State Security Adviser, Maj. General (retd) O. U. Obono.

The young men suspected to be foreign miners who invaded some communities in Yakurr local government area, were arrested Saturday morning as they attempted to evade an army checkpoint in Ugep.

The suspects were said to have boarded several empty trucks commuting through the area from northern part of the state and were bound for Calabar, the state capital.

Most of them, believed to be between the 12-26 age bracket, were caught with diggers, shovels, drilling machines and attendant earth drilling gear.

Security men, who interrogated the suspects on the ground, confirmed that in their profiling, several of them confessed to being non-Nigerians, mostly from Chad, Niger and other countries in the Sahel area of Africa, even though most of them tried hard to claim to be Nigerians.

Nigeria Immigration officials on the ground also confirmed that most of the suspects appear to have been briefed and prepared for any arrest eventuality by the faceless sponsors of this invasion.

In recent times, there has been reported cases of invasion of some communities in Akamkpa, Bisae, Yakurr,.Boki, Obanliku and Obudu by illegal miners in search of previous stones and minerals.

These illegale miners have most ones been resisted by host Communities, leading to clashes and killings.