By Theophilus ADEDOKUN

ARTISANAL coal mines in Ankpa and Omalla Local Government Areas of Kogi State are sites of dangerous labour, involving both adults and children, and have resulted in fatalities. These mining operations supply coal to intermediaries and companies involved in the energy sector.

It was midday in November 2024 in one of the several artisanal coal mines in Olekwu, a rural community in Omalla LGA of Kogi State where stacks of coal in sacks were displayed on the cleared landscape within a forest.

Workers of different age groups and genders with soiled clothes were shovelling, drilling and digging coal from smothering dark pits and hauling the extracted resource up the mineshaft for easy transfer to accessible sites.

They chitchat as they dug deep into the belly of the earth.

Several feet down the surface were children, predominantly between the ages of 9 and 16, who were armed with gears and axes to hollow out soot-coated stones while wearing torchlights on their foreheads meant to illuminate the dark tunnel.

These are indigenes and child miners from villages and communities far and near. They work in artisanal mining pits across communities where coal can be found.

Among them is Josiah Moses, a 13-year-old lad who was smeared from head to toe with blackness from coal.

Moses had been working for over seven hours without a break in the coal pit at the time the reporter met him. Tired and panting, he dropped his sixty-fourth bag of coal, aiming to carry over a hundred bags to sort some bills.

Like other bruised labourers, he had to toil from morning till nighttime under sweltering or frigid weather to carry 100 bags of coal every day before he could earn a paltry sum of N5,000 as wages, an amount equivalent to $2.95 Dollars for over 12 hours. This sum would be put towards for his educational savings, feeding and additional costs such as transportation.

Though Moses was not compelled to work under any obligation, the cost of living crisis and the need to settle the backlog of his tuition fees pushed the minor into such a pitiable condition.

His parents were aware, but there was little they could do because they are financially handicapped. With a subsistence farmer as a father and an unemployed mother, he was forced to fend for himself at a young age.

Some of his earnings from the mines were used to keep the family going.

“I know that I am missing classes right now, but I am doing this to gather money so that I can pay my last term tuition fees and save for feeding,” he explained, noting that he will return to the classroom immediately if he raised a substantial amount.

He complained that the wage paid to labourers was significantly minimal compared to the risk undertaken and the profit margin pit owners and middlemen rake in their quest to sell for a handful of big firms who struggle to purchase coal for cheap energy. He explained that the demand for coal makes the work lucrative and easy to find.

Some days, he returned to the mining site to do back-aching work after school. His work involves bending, breaking, mining, and carrying heavy loads without Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in one of the hundreds of illegal coal mine pits where underage artisans and drop-outs work and lose their lives.

Other residents in communities like Olokwu, Ichalla, Olufofo, and Odele face similar circumstances, driven by economic hardship.

Even though Joshua was aware of the risk of being a mine worker, the labour guarantees him the fastest way to raise money.

“Many people have died inside pits and when it collapses there is nothing that we can do than to wait for hours till their remains are dug out. This coal that we are mining is sold to Rockbottom Mines and Power Limited because it is close to us and we are not allowed to trade with another company,” Joshua said, stressing that the pits are unsafe due to rainfall, incessant collapses and landslide.

Child labour is prevalent in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), according to studies which poses a great danger to children’s development, safety, and health.

Tragically, a 12-year-old, Ibrahim Laginju, died in a mine collapse in November 2024. His brother, Yusuf Laginju, explained that Ibrahim was working to pay his school fees. The family reported that the pit owner fled the scene and they received no compensation.

“Ibrahim left for the mine pit to raise his tuition fees. He registered in private school to become a doctor and paid by himself,” said Ibrahim’s elder brother,

He explained that he owed the school N50,000 in backlog which he intended to pay up with wages gathered from the labour before his death.

“He was buried under the pit for more than 12 hours before he was excavated. I believe the delayed rescue also contributed to his death,” Yusuf said.

“The sad thing is that my brother was killed, and the pit owner walks about as if nothing happened. We still see big companies buying the same coal that took the life of my brother from him,” Yusuf bemoaned.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) in 2022 indicated a significant number of child labourers in Kogi State at 1,220,670. The survey showed 711,003 children aged 5-11 and 229,982 children aged 12-14 engaged in labour.

From daily bread to daily deaths

Lucky Danjuma, a 17-year-old who supported his widowed mother and sisters, died in a mine collapse in November 2023. His mother, Baby Danjuma, reported receiving N100,000 as compensation, part of which went to his pregnant fiancée who subsequently lost the child.

“They gave us N100,000 naira out of which N50,000 was given to Lucky’s pregnant fiancée. But the child was lost during delivery because it was born prematurely,” Lucky’s mother decried as a stream of tears rolled down her chin.

Interviews across mining sites in Odele, Ichalla, Ogboyaga, olufofo, and Olokwu revealed that accidents and fatalities are common. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has documented the risks to children’s health and safety in mining. Experts emphasise the need for increased awareness, data collection, and oversight at state and federal levels to address child labour in mines.

Jakpor Philips, the Executive Director of Renevlyn Development Initiative (RDI) stressed the importance of government enforcement, community collaboration, and invoking child rights legislation.

“Oversight at state and federal level are important in addressing the impact of mining,” said Philips.

He mentioned that Kogi government should not only enforce environmental standards but collaborate with communities and relevant stakeholders to expose infractions and sanction offenders.

Noting that curbing child labour required concerted efforts between civil society organisations and community activists, he said that the involvement of local authorities and community members is necessary for successful eradication.

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The death of Ismaila Umar, a 21-year-old young man was recorded in Olofofo village as of November 2024.

Like others, he was abandoned in a coal shaft after a pit collapse. Ismaila was a 200-level student. He had returned home to raise some funds for his upkeep in school before he met his end.

His death has left a sore in the heart of his mother, Fatima. Contrary to the reality, she ascribed Ismaila’s death to a spiritual attack.

“My son died in a mine a day before his proposed return to school.

“He only went to gather some money that he would use in school but what they brought back for me was his corpse. I believe he was attacked,” she said.

Pits, not pen: what mining does for a child

Many children in these mining communities, particularly in Odele and Ogboyaga where schools are scarce, are out of school. This is because there is neither the presence of primary nor secondary school in the two communities while Ichalla has a dilapidated primary school and no secondary school. Children who showed interest in acquiring formal education had to trek several kilometres.

Yahaya Ibrahim, an underage miner in Odele explained he is not interested in what would be learnt in school. “I don’t need to go to school, even if I wish to, there is none in Odele and I cannot travel far because of mining.”

Although many residents across the communities visited preferred to send their children off to coal mines, they are paying a heavy price because both children and adult are dying in tens.

From Agummagun to Olokwu and Olofofo, the insignia of human losses is visible on the faces of grieving mothers rendered childless and children orphaned.

Death watermarked households with grief and many residents attribute this catastrophe to spiritual attacks.

Also, their land has been warped and disfigured because coal was up for grabs.

Josiah Simon, a youth from Odele, noted that there is a high dropout rate due to mining opportunities and the lack of local schools. He mentioned that Mosra Enerji Limited purchases all the coal mined in his community.

“The only school is located in Olokwu and that is where my siblings are. They only come home during short and long vacation. If a school is built within our vicinity/community, children will go. Some people don’t train their children in school and they prefer to use them in mining so that they can make money. It is a choice for community members because there are schools in other communities,” he said.

Though Josiah had once worked as a miner, he said stopped due to the constant losses he ran into from the business.

“At some point, I borrowed some money to fund my mining, but I stopped because it is not a profitable business for me. I lost a lot of money and any money I invested in it was lost.

“The problem is that these children are exposed to earning at a tender age and do you expect a child making such amount to be serious with education? If they see N5,000 today and tomorrow, do you expect them to go to school?”

“All the coal that is mined by both adult and underage in this community is sold to Mosra Enerji Limited and they don’t bother to know who is mining it or what happens to those mining it,” Josiah added.

Child miners flood every community visited and anyone who attempts to speak against it is shunned. It is a means of survival for many families who are working across all its value chain.

Some who intend to be educated, like Moses Josiah, and Ibrahim Laginju are handicapped. With nobody willing to sponsor them, they are pushed to work as labourers in a mine shaft.

“Odele is lacking substantial development and basic amenities,” said the traditional chief, Joshua Solomon, while lamenting that his community is in dire need of standard communal learning facilities as there are no primary and secondary schools despite the heavy presence of mining activities.

“If you come very early, you would see children from this community trekking to neighbouring communities to school,” he said, adding that aside from a borehole that was constructed, Odele has not benefited from the five years presence of Mosra Enerji Limited in the community.

Coal mining: A fast lane out

Plumes of dust hung in the air after every truck’s passage like sandstorm blurring sight from Ankpa town to villages where coal is mined.

During a ride from Ankpa town to Ichalla, observation showed that the untarred roads marked with potholes were laced with soot of coal and mud.

Findings also showed that numerous miners had perished while plying the precarious roads. Locals stated that falls from trucks and braking failure are among the causes.

A local resident, Habeeb Tijani, said that there have been several incidents where people fell off high trucks and died. “What happened is that in an attempt to cut costs, miners climb trucks that are loaded with coal to their location, but some fell off on the road either because of the potholes or they are not properly seated.”

A miner, Yusuf Muftua, believed that the roads had turned into death traps.

“Every time we see is big companies passing by to get coal, yet our road is in a bad state, and they do nothing about it.

“If you sit here, you will see different trucks of Dangote, Mosra Enerji and Rockbottom passing by, but they do not even care to fix our road. It is exploitative and they are cheating us.”

The World Health Organization indicated that road traffic crashes result in the deaths of approximately 1.19 million people globally: leaving between 20 and 50 million people with non-fatal injuries.

The report emphasised that nine in 10 fatalities on the roads occur in low and middle-income countries, even though these countries have around 60 per cent of the world’s vehicles.

Noting that tens of mineworkers have died in road accidents caused by heavy trucks and trailers conveying coal in the communities, Abdullahi Habib, an erstwhile miner explained that he stopped mining due to the hazard associated with all the supply chain of the mining process.

“You will see people die by falling from trailers carrying coal or crashing. Some would even be buried under the mining pit during collapse for hours,” he said.

 Mining activities

Findings from the Ministry of Mine and Solid Mineral Development showed that Mosra Enerji Limited possesses a coal mining (archived here) Lease with licence number 24884 to explore and extract coal in Omala local government. The lease awarded on the June 1, 2017, will expire on May 31, 2042 . With 47 claim units, Mosra’s licence spans a total area  (m²) 9952835. These areas covered by its licence are located in Omala.

A similar check on the Integrated Automation and Interactive Solid Mineral Portal (IAISMP) Project, an online portal that facilitates the electronic filing of licences, permits, and other applications in the mining industry in Nigeria showed that Rockbottom Mines and Power Limited  exploration  lease (archived here) for coal has expired. it expired on Saturday January 18, 2020. The licence with no 24485 covers Agatu, which is in Benue State.

Any person or company planning to engage in mining operations must possess a valid mining lease, small-scale mining lease, or quarry lease, says section 43(1) of the Nigeria Minerals and Mining Act (2007).

Further findings shows that it  is currently operating under an exploratory licence for limestone and iron, according to further findings gathered from the Mine Cadastral Office.

Section 47 of the NMMA (2007) stipulates that mineral titles must be granted expressly for the discovery of certain minerals.

A list of active approved Community Development Agreements (CDA) published by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) and signed as of January 2021 showed that Rockbottom has an acknowledged agreement with its host communities – Olokwu, Iga-Ebije & Ajobe in Kogi State where it has mineral title 26529SSML for granite.

It was also found out that Dangote Industries Limited is running (archived here) a mining (archived here) operation in Ankpa Local government. The operation is predominantly meant to extract coal and clay.

Coal mined by child-artisans

“Many of the children in Olokwu work for Rockbottom,” said Nejiru Nasiru, who said he is worked for Rockbottom revealing that the byproduct of these minors ends in their warehouse while emphasising that he started up as a child miner.

Explaining that the company consciously avoid putting these children on their payroll, he stressed that the artisanal mines within areas covered by the lease of the company is prevented from selling to third parties except the company.

“They know that children are used in these mining pit and they are aware that purchasing coal from artisanal miners is cheap which is why they are not waging war against them,” he said, adding that he started as a child miner in one of the pits.

Corroborating Nejiru’s claim, Habib expressed that during his time their employers who were artisans were barred from trade with businesses except from Rockbottom Mines and Power Limited, Mosra Enerji Limited directly.

“They have stopped many of these small-scale miners from trading with buyers outside. They did this because they believe it is cheaper to buy from us than employ miners,” he noted.

That is easy to achieve for the companies because there was no accessible road across the forested mining pits.

When asked how to get land to mine, Akeem Ibrahim, who owns a coal depot in Olokwu, stated that buying a plot of land to start mining operations is best done directly from traditional rulers. However, their involvement in the entire process does not ensure that an investor would not be defrauded, stating that the risk is higher without these traditional rulers.

When asked about how a start-up company could commence operation with affordable labour, he clarified that securing coal at a low cost required the service of untrained labourers, unskilled villagers and minors.

Although Ibrahim said that there was no visible land to extract at the time, he said to visit the chiefs of Odele and Ichalla.

Investigation also revealed that aside from the companies, indigenes are converting their farmland into coal pits and leasing it to businessmen with no mining lease.

Although the traditional ruler of Ichalla, Steven Gago initially denied that children are working in mining pits in his community, he later said children who mine are not forced. “We don’t force them to mine they are doing it willingly and it is not a problem, and we value education in our community.”

“Everywhere you see mining is under the control of Mosra and children are mining in the pits. All those mining is for Mosra and I don’t know about it. It is a cooperate mining done for Mosra,” he said.

“It is a general mining and many communities in our local government are mining. It should not be a big issue. This happen in all area in Ika district.”

All our artisanal miners were certified by Mosra and even the community. It was instructed by Mosra that open the land surface to mine. We don’t sell coal to another company we work for Mosra,” he noted.

Dangote, Morsa Energy, Rockbottom Kogi government silent 

Between Sunday, December 1 and Wednesday, January 8, multiple enquiries were to sent Dangote Industries Limited, Mosra Enerji Limited, and Rockbottom Mines and Power Limited to clarify the findings and verify the allegations.

The messages includes what steps were taken to guarantee that their supply chain was free of child labour and how they were being monitored to confirm adherence to national and international labour and ethical standards, but they did not respond.

Additional requests for these businesses to disclose their coal suppliers in the local government districts of Omalla and Ankpa, as well as the steps taken against non-complaint suppliers linked to child labour who provide in Ichalla, Ogboyaga, Olufofo, Olokwu, and Odele, were not answered.

Also, in order to confirm adherence to labour and ethical standards, the firms were asked how they manage and trace their supply chain and whether they have distinct policies to deal with child work.

Meanwhile, as of the time this report, the Kogi State Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had not responded to inquiries on the matter.