Foreign illegal gold miners seize control of Cross River hamlet, prompting elders and chiefs to call out

There are a lot of illegal foreign gold miners in the Ifumkpa community in Cross River State’s Akamkpa LGA, and the locals there are worried.

According to community leaders who spoke with sesothomp3, the gold miners do not pay royalties.

They claimed that the young people of their own country had turned against them because of the foreigners, and that if they try to stop the illegal miners, the young people attack and threaten them.

“We don’t know these people that have invaded our community and taken over our forests in the name of mining for gold,” said Chief Cletus Ibuni, head of the Ifumkpa community’s hamlet. According to what I’ve heard, some of them are even armed.

None of them even make an effort to talk to us. We don’t receive any revenues from them. They would much rather influence some of our young people by interacting with them.

Once, we dared to question the status quo, even though doing so might have cost us our lives. The youths would often overpower and intimidate us due to their boundless energy and support from the powerful men who were involved in the gold digging.

We had to be quiet, therefore we survived.

The chief of the village claims that they have informed various authorities—including the state administration, the Minister of Mines and Steel, and the Cross River National Park Service—about the problem, but so far, nothing has changed.

Illegal timber logging is something they are cognizant of, he continued.

We are cognizant of the fact that local lumber traders have fallen a tree. Before they leave with the logs, they pay us a “gate fee” of N5,000.

“Our access road to the Ikom federal highway has been graded with this collection,” he announced.

According to the findings, the local Tipper Garage sells one ounce of pure gold for N70,000.

According to Mrs. Caroline Olory, the Cross River Conservator of Parks, CRNP Forest Rangers and soldiers have been conducting surveillance operations in the forest, leading to the arrest of several individuals.