THE rush for solid minerals by illegal artisanal and small-scale miners in Benue State has left communities at risk of a lead poisoning outbreak, turning once fertile farmlands into degraded wastelands. This investigation exposes how the ugly trend has continued in two local government areas despite the ban on illegal mining activities.
It had been an exhausting day for 35-year-old widow, Terdoo Tyozenda, and her 11-year-old daughter, as they returned from a mining site in Anyiin, on the evening of January 19.
Both carried on their heads plastic bowls containing lead ore, but daughter absentmindedly fiddled her lead-coated finger in her mouth.
Lowering the bucket from her head, Tyozenda said, “mining has become our new farm. Without this (lead ore), we would die of hunger, and I won’t have money to buy basic things like soap.”
She estimated that the quantity in the bowl weighed around 3 kilograms. “We sell a kilo at N500 (to local traders), so I think I will make N1,500,” she said, adding that the killing of her husband during a 2023 attack on their village by armed herdsmen left her struggling to make ends meet.
Anyiin, a town in Logo LGA of Benue state is now home to thousands of displaced farmers living in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, many of whom have turned to illegal mining activities for survival. Tyozenda and her daughter were heading to the camp when The ICIR sought to speak with her.
At the mining sites located about 15 kilometres off Akwana Road in Anyiin, women and children were found in their hundreds scavenging for lead ore and fluorite, with their bare hands. Some men operated heavy machinery, without Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The scene resembled a rowdy market as sacks of lead ore and fluorite were on display for potential buyers.
Along the Akwana Road and Tyogbenda village in Anyiin were acidic mine ponds and pits which residents said overflow into nearby farmlands during the rainy seasons.
Similarly, Kwande LGA has several farmlands and water sources like River Mbagwa, which are contaminated by mining activities of gold.
Lead poisoning looms
In Benue State, the rush for solid mineral resources by artisanal miners who are often illegal and small-scale miners has left communities at the risk of a lead poisoning outbreak and turned once fertile farmlands into degraded wasteland. It has also caused revenue losses for the government.
Despite suspension on mining activities by the state government, the trend has continued in Logo and Kwande LGAs due to poor guidelines and enforcement.
Contamination leaves food consumers at risk- Soil science expert
Ibiwumi Nwachukwu, a professor of Soil Science at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, said Nigeria should be concerned that Benue, a state in the north-central region which provides a substantial portion of the country’s agricultural output, is now at risk of not only being stripped of its fertility but also endangering the health of food consumers.
When mining of heavy metals like lead is unregulated, the people are exposed to poisoning and the land suffers degradation, said the professor, whose current research is on heavy metals in soil-plant systems, soil contamination and remediation.
Shedding light on the danger of abandoned acid mine ponds overflowing into farmlands, Nwachukwu said, “If it overflows, of course, it will spill into the surrounding farmlands. The water will seep into the soil, and the plants will absorb it. It’s not localised; that is what we call diffuse contamination.”
“The danger is that, even though I’m far from that place and not directly exposed to the contaminants in the soil, I’m still at risk. All the food produced in those areas get transported across the country, and anyone can buy it in the market,” she stated.
‘They will die slowly, without knowing’
The U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in a report titled, “Lead Poisoning Investigation in Northern Nigeria” says when lead dust is in the air, children and adults breathe in the particles. They also get exposed by drinking water or eating contaminated food.
“Lead exposure can damage many body systems, including the brain, kidneys, bones, and the nervous system,” the report said, adding that children exposed to lead contamination “often die.”
On the threat of a lead poisoning outbreak at the mine sites and the IDP camps, Nwachuku said the women and children scavenging the minerals “without specialised gloves were exposed to slow death, without knowing.” She explained that children get poisoned by just touching the soil that has high lead in it.
“The poison goes into the body, into the bloodstream because the human skin has pores. They may feel it’s not affecting them immediately, but over time, the effects accumulate. After years of exposure, they’ll start to see the consequences. Some symptoms show up early, while others may take years to manifest,” she stated.
Curiously, Nigeria has faced some lead poisoning outbreaks. Between April and May 2015, 28 children in the remote villages of Kawo and Magiro, in Niger State died days after exhibiting symptoms like convulsions, insomnia, and hallucinations. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) later confirmed that the children died due to dangerously high levels of lead in their bodies.
Similarly, in 2010 there was another outbreak of lead poisoning in Zamfara, a state in Northern Nigeria notorious for illegal gold mining, which killed at least 400 people, mainly children.
Farmlands turned degraded wasteland
After walking 4 kilometres along a narrow path, Tyoughnande Tertindi, a 23-year-old farmer, stopped at an uncultivated piece of land near River Mbagwa, to share his growing frustration with illegal miners. For several years, the farmland in the Kwande LGA of Benue State had produced a bountiful harvest of cassava and sweet potatoes. However, the situation changed in 2023.
What was once fertile soil, has now been overtaken by open mine pits, and prone to flooding during the rainy season. The destruction of Tertindi’s farmland was caused by his fellow villagers seeking fortunes from imining of alluvial gold, which was discovered on the banks of River Mbagwa.
The artisanal miners often leave behind open pits after extracting minerals, or even when their labour proves in vain. This results in farmers like Tertindi suffering the devastation of farmlands when the pits overflow during the rainy season. He estimated that his cassava and sweet potato farms worth over a million naira had been destroyed by illegal mining activities.
“I reported the case to our community’s mining chairman, but nothing has been done,” he said.
Aba Kimbi, a resident in Kwande, who is familiar with the history of gold mining in the state, said the scramble began in 2017 after an artisanal miner identified as Don Kwas made the discovery near one of the rivers tributaries in the neighbouring Agenago village. Kwas had returned home from Zamfara, a state notorious for illegal gold mining.
“After Kwas hit the jackpot, many villagers abandoned farming in search of gold (without government permit). They believe that a few grams of gold can fetch them money that several years of farming cannot,” Kimbi said during an interview in Adikpo, the local government headquarters.
Mining without geophysical data, guidelines, the genesis
After the 2017 discovery of gold in Kwande, some villagers began destroying their farmlands to strike gold and other minerals, said a geologist and the chief executive officer of Gemini Mining and Exploration Ltd, Andrew Kputu.
Kputu said he was shocked to observe the trend while serving as a Special Adviser to the former governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom, on Solid Minerals. “Ordinarily, mining is always bound to affect agriculture if carried out without proper geophysical data. The sad thing is these people are mining haphazardly.
“They do so without first checking to know whether the places they are digging have any commercial quantity of the deposit. So, they end up excavating and leaving these pits open, then move to the next place and continue the damage,” he noted during an interview at his Makurdi residence.
Briefing newsmen in October 2023, Comfort Akwanya Adau, the Chairperson of Benue State’s Task Force on Illegal Mining, said “huge mineral deposits” across the 23 local government areas of the state had been taken over by illegal miners.
“Presently, there are no guidelines for mining, as even under-age children from IDP camps are involved in digging a huge pit in the name of mining, which poses danger to their health,” she said.
There are 500,182 IDPs in Benue State as a result of the farmer-herder conflict, which has intensified in recent years. Out of the figures, Logo alone accounts for 13,633 individuals, while Kwande has 15,909 individuals, according to the January 2025 report by the International Organisation for Migration Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM).
Benue food crisis deepens
As illegal miners continue to destroy farmlands in Benue, a food security analysis conducted by the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition, and Development showed that 50.3 per cent of the rural farming households in the state are food insecure. The study further revealed that rural households were often affected by environmental factors such as “limited water supply, and contaminated surface water.”
Similarly, the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has said there is at least 62.2 per cent prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in Benue State. The Policy and Advocacy Associate of the Swiss-based foundation, Toromade Olutayo, disclosed this during a training held at Makurdi in June 2024.
Furthermore, in November 2024, the Managing Director of the Benue Investment and Property Company (BIPC), Raymond Asemakaha, stated that, “Food prices remain higher in Benue than neighbouring states despite being tagged the Food Basket of the country.”
Asemakaha stated this at a meeting with Benue Farmers and Traders Protection and Development (BFTPD) aimed to address food insecurity and improve the economic conditions of farmers in the state.
Revenue losses
Nigeria loses $9bn annually to illegal mining, according to the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals. The chairperson of the committee, Jonathan Gaza Gbefwi said, “The unregulated exploitation of our natural resources jeopardises the sustainability of the mineral sector, leading to environmental degradation and revenue loss that could otherwise benefit our communities and nation as a whole.”
Despite having 34 out of the 44 solid minerals found in Nigeria, Benue State gets only N30 million as derivative from the federal government due to the activities of illegal miners, according to the Benue State Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO).
At a media briefing in February 2024, Fidelis Mnyim, the Chairperson of MIREMCO, said, “The presence of illegal miners in the state, the problem of improper reporting of mining activities have denied the state the royalties and 13 per cent derivatives that it should receive.”
Rivalry over mining areas
Section 44(3) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution vests control of mineral resources in the federal government, but the land where mining takes place fall under the jurisdiction of state governments.
The Minerals and Mining Act (2007), the primary law governing Nigeria’s mining sector says, “No person shall search for or exploit mineral resources in Nigeria or divert or impound water for the purpose of mining except as provided in this Act.”
A document obtained from the website of the Nigeria Mining Cadastre Office (NMCO) revealed that it has approved valid mineral titles for 124 companies that spanned a total of 3,725 Sq. Km in Benue state. NMCO is the federal government agency mandated by Section 5 (1) of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, 2007 to administer and manage minerals titles in Nigeria.
According to an analysis by The ICIR, 1,459 Sq. Km of the allotted titles are located on borderlines between Benue and its neighbouring states of Cross River, Nasarawa, Kogi, Enugu and Taraba.
However, Kimbi, the Kwande resident, earlier interviewed, said some local communities have formed resistance movements against companies that come to mine in their communities, despite obtaining licences from NMCO.
Kimbi, who works with Adila Nigeria Limited, a registered mining company, recalled how they were barred from entering a community to carry out exploration of gold, despite obtaining a licence from the government.
“The government got it wrong from the beginning when it failed to issue a clear guideline and sensitise the local people on how mining activities should be carried out. These villagers display a dangerous ignorance of the law,” he said.
Reacting to Kimbi’s claim, Kputu, the geologist, faulted some miners for obtaining exploration licences or mining leases without consultation with landowners or entering into a community development agreement (CDA) with the host communities.
“We have situations where investors try to shortchange the communities, sometimes they extend their operations into areas that are not within their scope. This has caused strife between host communities and investors,” he said.
Despite ban, illegal mining activities persist
At an emergency security meeting on August 18, 2022, the former governor of Benue state, Samuel Ortom ordered the immediate suspension of illegal mining of gold across various communities in the Kwande LGA saying, “If allowed to fester, illegal mining posed security and environmental problems to the state.”
Despite the suspension, illegal mining was still prevalent in 2023 when Ortom’s tenure ended, ushering in the current administration of Governor Hyacinth Alia.
In March 2024, the state government again, suspended all mining activities in the state, expressing concerns over the contamination of water sources for residents in the affected areas, especially in Kwande, which The ICIR confirmed during the January visit.
“The state government will not tolerate any illegality. It is our administration’s prerogative to protect the lives and property of the people,” Alia said.
Nine months after the embargo was placed on mining activities in Benue State, Governor Alia created a new Bureau for Solid Minerals to address illegal mining activities in the state, appointing Stephen Utah, who hitherto was his Principal Special Assistant on Solid Minerals, to head the bureau.
However, findings by The ICIR during a visit to Logo and Kwande revealed that illegal mining activities persist in the state. Reacting to the findings, the communications officer of the Bureau for Solid Minerals, Paul Iorlaha, in a telephone interview said the bureau was aware of the destruction of farmlands by illegal miners.
“These illegal miners are not people from abroad. Some of them are destroying their farmlands by themselves to get the minerals. As indigenes, sometimes they sneak out at midnight to carry out these illegal mining activities. It’s been difficult to checkmate them.”
While Iorlaha did not state the number of illegal miners that the state government had arrested or prosecuted, the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dele Alake, told journalists in March 2025, that the federal government had arrested 320 illegal miners across the country, adding that 150 were facing prosecution, and 9 including 4 foreigners, had been convicted.
“Political, social, cultural sensitivities were major impediments to the eradication of illegal and unregulated mining activities in the country,” the Minister said.
Government paying lip services – Conservation group
The Chairman of the Benue Hike, Tourism, and Conservation Foundation, Tersoo Akula, said mining illegally meant that an environmental impact assessment was not carried out.
“The people discovered gold and started mining on their own, using crude tools and methods. They expose the environment to a lot of danger because they don’t know how, where and when to dig. They might not even understand the environmental implications of what they do,” he said.
To draw the attention of the state government and the general public to the danger posed by illegal mining in the local communities, the Benue Hike, Tourism, and Conservation Foundation in 2024 published a documentary, titled, “Gold Fields of Kwande – The Real Story.”
The seven minutes and seventeen seconds documentary show that apart from gold, other minerals discovered in the state include gemstones like agate, mica, quartz, pirate, topaz, ilmenite, and azurite.
“These minerals are in high demand for key industries like electronics, pharmacy, aerospace, and defence,” he noted.
In a telephone interview, Akula said despite writing several letters to the state government and paying advocacy visits to Governor Hyacinth Alia requesting urgent regulations, the foundation observed that “nothing had changed.”
“It is worrisome that the Benue state government is aware that these things are happening but has not put in place a framework for regulating these activities. I do not see any concrete action and I think the government is paying lip service to those problems.”
However, the communication officer of the State Bureau for Solid Minerals, Iorlaha said Governor Alia’s decision to suspend mining in the state was one of the measures to address illegal mining activities.
He said the suspension was part of the state government plan to compensate farmers whose farmlands were destroyed by illegal mining activities and sensitise them on the need to comply with the law governing the mining sector.
“Definitely, farmlands must be destroyed for mining activities to take place. But the state government under the bureau is making sure that those concerns become a thing of the past,” Iorlaha said.
Towards a sustainable future…
Jonathan Ekafan, a professor of Plant Pathology at the University of Agriculture, Makurdi said he has observed an increasing number of cases of diseases linked to mining of heavy metals in the society.
“Exposure to these heavy minerals can damage vital organs like the kidney, the liver, the brain and the heart. That tells you how important it is to really think about controlling mining so that such effects are reduced,” he said.
Calling for stricter regulation and surveillance, Ekafan urged the government to make sure that only licensed miners are allowed to carry out mining activities “with clear guidelines that protect people and the environment.”
In addition to suspending mining activities, Nwachukwu, the professor of soil science at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, said the government must ensure the revegetation and remediation of the areas that have been destroyed by illegal mining activities.
“There is no quick solution, but the government must stop the unregulated mining activities,” said Nwachukwu, a member of Soil Science Society of Nigeria, Soil Science Society of America, and the British Society of Soil Science.
For Tyozenda and her daughter, addressing illegal mining activities in Anyiin must start from tackling the incessant attacks and displacement of farmers by armed herdsmen.
“If they (government) stop illegal mining, what else can we do?” she asked, trudging to the IDP camp, that has been their home since 2023.
Sinafi Omanga is a multimedia journalist and researcher with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting. He has a keen interest in humanitarian reporting, social justice, and environment.
Twitter handle:
@OmangaSinafi
Email:
somanga@icirnigeria.org