Plight of richly poor Osun gold mining communities
They are tagged to be a community of gold and peace, the mineral resources on their land is unprecedented but the dwellers of Itagunmodi, Ariyelepe, Oke-Owena and Dairo villages among other mining communities in Atakumosa West Local Government Area of Osun State who are predominantly cocoa farmers seemed oblivious of the huge benefits or perhaps, […]
They are tagged to be a community of gold and peace, the mineral resources on their land is unprecedented but the dwellers of Itagunmodi, Ariyelepe, Oke-Owena and Dairo villages among other mining communities in Atakumosa West Local Government Area of Osun State who are predominantly cocoa farmers seemed oblivious of the huge benefits or perhaps, they lack the necessary wherewithal. The dwellers of these communities continue farming, cultivating cocoa right on gold until the peace and tranquillity that they enjoyed in the past was truncated due to security threats since some miners stormed their once-peaceful communities in search of gold.
Entering Itagunmodi from Ilesa, the hometown of the immediate past governor of the state, Mr Rauf Aregbesola who is currently the Minister of Interior, the road was smooth but one could hardly see vehicles on it. The artisanal miners who dominate the population of the communities use motorcycles mostly since cars cannot go into the mining areas where they do their business. Away from the buzzing central point at Itagunmodi, the journey to Ariyelepe, Oke-Owena and Dairo villages where the mining is happening was a herculean task given the nature of the terrain which could only be assessed with a motorcycle. 
At Oke-Owena, while the local miners were mining manually by digging the ground, there was a kind of industrial mining going on with some heavy-duty equipment. Most of the artisanal miners are from the North while only a few are from the Eastern part of the country. The industrial mining facility was owned by some Chinese expatriates. Some armed policemen were attached to the expatriates, who were designated to provide security for them. The local miners only speak Hausa while on the other hand, the Chinese expatriates do not understand English. The local miners and the Chinese expatriates were far away from each other. Our correspondent attempted to speak with the Chinese expatriate but their interpreter was not around as at the time Daily Trust Saturday visited. The local miners who said they didn’t understand English, said they could only speak Hausa language. However, it was clear that there was no clash between the Chinese expatriates and the local miners.
Meanwhile, the farmers in the community were hurt. They said government abandoned them and that the local miners and the Chinese expatriates complicated their ordeal. They lamented that when miners discovered gold anywhere, they would uproot the cocoa and other plants there and start digging the area for gold. They also said that the miners usually enter their farms to take yam, roast and eat. They lamented that the equipment brought in by the Chinese expatriates for mining has polluted the river which was their only source of drinking water. They also said that they do not have access to electricity and that there is no road to the villages.
One of the farmers, Pa Abel Oladipupo said he has spent about70 years in the village. The 92-year-old man said he does not have anything to do with gold and that he concentrated on his cocoa farm. He lamented that the miners destroyed parts of his cocoa farm. He said there was no presence of government in the village in terms of social amenities. He also hinted that the village dwellers need road, electricity and water. He also said that they heard about the campaign to end open defecation and pleaded with government either at local or state level to build a toilet in the village so that the villagers would stop defecating in the open.
His words “We have been here for long. I came here at the age of 20 and I’m more than 90 years now. We have not benefited from the government in any way. There is no road to this village. That tiny path that you took to be able to get here was done by us. The bridge you see on your way coming was our effort. You can see that there is no sign of electricity here. So, we are not getting anything from the government. In fact, our problem has been complicated now. We used to drink water from that river over there but since the Chinese miners started drilling with heavy equipment, the water became polluted and we cannot drink it again. The Chinese people promised that they will give us borehole but they didn’t. The miners are destroying our farms. They dig anywhere that they find gold once they do their survey. They harvest and eat yam and maize from our farms anyhow they like. We want the government to help us. Give us road, electricity, borehole and toilets. Those are the things we want from the government.”
Another farmer at Oke-Owena, Kamoru Adekunle also said that the government abandoned the people of the village leaving them to their fate. He said the government has not done anything for them even when they risk all they have to go to town to vote during an election. He said “government should come to our aid. They should stop treating us as if we do not exist. We are farmers and we are citizens. We also wan social amenities.”
At Ariyelepe village, their situation seemed a bit better but their suffering is the same as their neighbours at Oke-Owena. There are electric poles at Ariyelepe with cables on them but the villagers said this was just like a decoration because the transformer given to them was not functional and they have not used electricity for almost two years. The Traditional ruler in the village, Chief Isac Fadare said all efforts to make the transformer work failed. “Since they brought this transformer, we have not enjoyed it for one day. I went to Osogbo to get it from the state government and it was installed but we didn’t know that it was bad. We have spent lots of money to make it work but it still in its bad state. We have been in darkness since last year”.
Two cocoa farmers at Ariyelepe village Adewuyi Samson and Adeoye Adesoji who spoke with Daily Trust Saturday said the suffering by the farmers as a result of the lack of social amenities was becoming unbearable particularly since the Chinese expatriates came with their mining equipment that unsettled the river and contaminated the water.
One of the housewives in the village, Ester Awopetu said getting water to cook and wash has been her major challenge in the villages. She said the water from the river could is not good for drinking and cooking again. She added that he had been using sachet water to cook and appealed to government to provide drinkable water for the people of the community.
“They are making life difficult for us here. This cable you see on the poles is just decoration; it is for nothing other than that. The government should give us a good transformer. We want borehole so that we can get water to drink since the Chinese have polluted our stream where we were getting water.”
Meanwhile, some officials of the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development were sighted conducting surveillance of the mining sites in the communities. The officials declined to comment when our correspondent attempted to talk to them. They insisted that they were not authorised to speak with journalists.
Back to Itagunmodi, it was sunset already and the miners were returning to the town from the sites. They were going straight to Mohammed’s shop to pick their phone and lamps. Mohammed is also a miner but his son, Monsuru is in charge of the shop. Mohammed has a generator and people charge their phones and rechargeable lamps in his shop for a N50 fee. Of course, Itagunmodi too is in the dark. The transformer is not functioning. Mohammed comes to their rescue as the dwellers of the village have resigned to their fate amid suffering and security threat in the communities that brag as City of Gold and Peace.