By Shakirudeen Bankole
The presence of an open market for the sale of illegally procured coal in Kogi State is, well, an open secret to anyone familiar with the trade. Every day of the week, dealers, truckers and sellers are gathered for the illegal but bustling sale at the market domiciled at Ika, Ofugo and Ogboyaga communities of the state. On this particular day, one of the more populated section of the market was at a place known as Emir or Otapa. The entire area was a beehive of activities as workmen – Nigerians and foreigners – sweated profusely to load coal onto the rows of waiting trucks. Significantly, the loading depots are not far from illegally mined pits where another set of individuals spend their days chipping coal out of the bowels of the earth.
A one-week investigation into this trade started within the communities known to be involved in this business. They are: Ajego Community, headed by Imam Adamu; Manejo Community, led by Mr. Enoc; Odokponuu Community led by Bala Okolo; Ajacherane Community, under the leadership of the Gago, Abubakar – who doubles as the youth leader of the entire area; and the Ogboyaga Community, led by one Mr Abraham, the Senior Gago and one Mr. Amodu, the Junior Gago. Gago is the local language for Community Head in the area. Amodu is reputed to be Chairman of one of the illegal loading sites.
Efforts to speak with the paramount ruler of the area, His Royal Majesty, King Abdulazeez Usman, the Chief Doga (The King) of Ika was unsuccessful, even as sources say he was in good position to speak on the activities of the illegal miners and their customers.
Findings with the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals at Abuja revealed that most of the land area at the heart of the illegal coal mining activities in Kogi have been officially allocated to companies who secured the titles through open and transparent bidding process. One of them was said to have paid as huge as $15m for the title. But the companies are at a loss as to how to cope with the illegals who have crowded their fields. One of the sites from which these trucks were seen loading illegally mined coal is said to belong to the owners of Mining Lease 769 and Mining Lease 772. Other leases are equally affected, sources say.
A manager of one of the firms, who spoke on condition of anonimity for fear of official backlash, said it has been impossible to get government support to tackle the menace. “We have spent hundreds of millions of naira to get mining titles to these lands, yet here are illegals camped on the land and mining the same resource we paid for,” she said. “This makes a mockery of the effort we went through to get the titles.”
A field manager at the site of another firm in Kogi State said the impact of the nefarious activities of illegal miners go beyond lost revenue. “Sometimes you are driving your trucks on your land and suddenly the land would cave in and swallow the truck, putting the lives of those in it at risk. It is then we would realise that the illegal miners had already burrowed into the land and moved most of the coal out, leaving empty hole behind. It is very dangerous for our men and our equipment.”
Journey into the pit
From the Police Command Headquarters in Ankpa Local Government Area of Kogi State, a narrow pathway leads to Nigeria’s arguably largest coal reserve. It is a long and torturous road less travelled by many, except you are either a farmer, licensed mining company, regulator, indigene, and or one of the unscrupulous people engaging in illegal mining activities in the area.
The journey traversed two border communities in Kogi and Benue State. Although in close proximity, the two communities are separated by languages and cultural norms. Residents of the communities are demonstrably friendly to one another and to outsiders.
For one long and uninterrupted hour, our motorbike travelled in silence, navigating the hilly, and water lodged areas leading to the community. While some parts roads.are deplorable and almost impassible, others are surprisingly smoothly paved. On both ends of the road, the beautiful and lush view of vast arable lands is interspersed by pockets of faming activities or large piles of coal, loaded in sacks. The commodity forms mountainous heaps in some.places, said to be daily proceeds of illegal mining activities in the area.
The route is also clogged by giant trucks in their tens, shuttling in and out of the area, on daily basis. Their open conveyors are usually filled to the brim with coal. From the markings on their body, a majority of these trucks belong to the Dangote Group, Nigeria’s and Africa’s arguably biggest industrial conglomerate.
The scene at the mining sites is quite surreal. Like ants swarming a mound of sugar, men are all over the place scurying in and out of seeps holes hapahazardly dug out of the ground. With touch lights strapped to their foreheads and double-headed sharp diggers in their hands, youngish able-bodied men, mostly from the Northern part of the country and Niger Republic, daily move into the different mining pits. Others, with visible exhaustion written on their faces, emerge from the dark holes, either to take fresh air or to eat before returning into the pits.
The work is dangerous to say the least. But the money is said to be somewhat good. A bag of coal scooped out of the pit would fetch a worker between N80 or N100. And with a standby four-legged wheeler to move the commodity to the market, two or three workers can combine efforts to scoop out as many as 3,000 bags in a few hours.
“Averagely, a worker takes home daily between N20,000 and more,depending on their efforts,” one of the workers told this reporter.
To have a closer experience of the job, our reporter entered one of the pits considered safe for inspection and spent his life’s longest 20 minutes inside the hole. The hole is about 500 meters below the surface level of the ground. It is about seven feet in height.and about same in width. While inside, this reporter observed that the pits were marked safe because of the simple wooden reinforcement pillars at the entrance and inside, on both sides.
There were also multiple interconnected tunnels, wide enough to take a bus. The strategy was described as perfect for escape in a situation of a trapping or collapse incident.
“You can walk inside this place for two hours and nothing will happen to you,” Mr. Ola (surname withheld), the Pit Manager at one of the mining sites, said.
Inside the pit, activities were ongoing like in normal surface level business transactions. Dozens of men, soaked in their shirts, were busy working; some folding the sacks, some pushing the bags outside or passing along instructions. Others were seen eating, some sleeping and or relaxing, all clearly oblivion to the possible danger of the collapse of the millions of tons of weight of the earth above their heads.
“But we are actually safe here because of the safety precaution we have put in place to forestall pit collapse. Besides, you can also see the Excavator, it is on a standby, in case of any emergency,” Ola said.
“Oga, let’s continue. Don’t be afraid,” a group of seven miners, who were clearly excited to see an external presence, speak to motivate the reporter to explore the pit further so as to see the actual mining activities live.
It was a significant moment, as one could only see flashes of lights, and hear voices of the young men in the thick dark hole. At the end of the tunnel was a massive wall of coal, which a man was attacking with his chisel and shovel. His name is Abdullah.
The walk out of the tunnel further revealed the extent of danger of possible collapse, as water leaked profusely in some parts. All it would take is for a heavy duty truck to pass through the surface level above the ground, and the hole beneath would cave in on the workers. “That is why the area is cordoned off,” another supervisor at the site said, noticing the worry on the face of the reporter.
However, the same cannot be said for those most of the pits opened for illegal mining. Most of these pits had no reinforcement, nor a standby excavator, in a situation of emergency.
“Besides the illegality of the trade itself, there is little or no consideration for the safety of the life of the workers. The pits where coals are being excavated from are not dug properly to prevent caving and collapsing on the Miners,” a local and an ex-worker at the site said. He now engages in buying of coal from the miners.
*Munir is the latest victim of mining pit collapse
He revealed that three young men have been killed by pit collapses in recent time. Munir, a young man in his 20s, was one of the victims. He died instantly, leaving behind a young family. Enquiries about his family yielded no answer, as miners and community people maintained sealed lips.
“Besides Munir’s case, last month, one of the pits also collapsed and three miners died. The communities can not cry out because they are all involved in it,” the source said.
The trade in illegally mined coal is done at industrial scale.
*Trucks line up to load illegally mined coal
Sources in the trade revealed there are different mode of purchase and supply of the illegal commodity. It is either a direct purchase from the community through its leaders, or via a third-party arrangement.
One of the traders who called himself Captain Daniel, a former personnel of the Nigerian Army, is one of the third party linkages and an alleged facilitator for supplies to big buyers, said to include Dangote Cement Company Plc, which operates a factory at Obajana, Kogi State.
“Yes,.I am the one supplying Dangote and other small buyers. As I speak with you, they are loading for me,” he told this reporter. He thought he was speaking with a person interested in purchasing bulk quantity of coal from the area. “There is no problem at all. I am from Kabba here in Kogi State. Everything will be fine.”
Discussions with two other traders at one of the illegal loading depots about the business and how to get in on it elicited the same responses. “Yes, I can help you,” one of them said. “When you are ready, just come,” the other echoed.
“I have spoken to one of those who is facilitating the bulk purchase for the Dangote people. He said we can still get some to buy. He promised to facilitate your purchase for you too. I told him your desired location is Osun and Ibadan in Oyo State,” another youth in the community who was approached to establish a purchase connection, said. He was not aware he was dealing with a journalist.
One of the sites from which these trucks were seen loading illegally mined coal is said to belong to Mining Lease 769 and Mining Lease 772.
Although several of the drivers of the branded trucks were approached to see if they would agree to a side hustle, they mostly declined.
“I can’t carry your goods. I am on an official assignment. We are not allowed to do that,” one driver said. “However, I can call my friend in Abuja to come and help ypu when you are ready,” he added, trying to be helpful.
Another driver was equally reticent. “Wa aleikum salaam waramotullahi wabarakatuhu,” he responded to this reporter’s salutation. Abdullahi, who is in his 40s, said he has been working for Dangote, driving a truck for the past five years. “Sorry sir, I cannot carry your load for you. Our company will not allow me,” he said.
Dangote Group blames contractors for illegal trading in coal
Dr. Anthony Chiejina, the Chief Group Branding and Communications Officer for Dangote Group, declined comments on the findings. The two long hours of audience and conversation between him and this reporter at his Falomo, Lagos office could not yield an official response on the matter. “I do not want to be quoted on this matter,” he told this reporter, with a stern voice.
It is noteworthy to reflect Chiejina’s warmth, courteousness, and mastery of the Corporate Communications pitfalls, as he skillfully dodged the critical issues of allegation of erosion of trust, accountability, and corporate wrecklessness levelled against his company.
However, another top official of Dangote, who pledged anonymity, fiercely defended Dangote Group, absolving it of any wrong doing.
The official said besides holding and operating a coal mining license itself, Dangote Group is a global conglomerate with business interests across Oil and Gas, Cement, Sugar, Salt, and food value chains, among others, with the financial capability to take care of its needs.
He said the trucks sighted at the illegal coal depots in Ankpa are probably those “under our Third-Party Trucker Agreement.”
The Third-Party Trucker Arrangement is described as a reward system that grants full ownership of a truck to a staff or contractor, in recognition of their unblemished career and dedication to the company.
“And as one of the conditions to retain the ownership of these trucks, we ask them to remove our names and logo on them. However, I understand some of them don’t comply with this instruction,” he said.
He said further that the total number of truck under the full ownership of the company is 9,000, stressing that the trucks are distributed across its business operations in the Cement, Sugar, Salt, Noddles, and the Agriculture value chain..
Mining Marshals Court filings challenge Dangote’s narrative
In response to enquiries from TheMiners, the leadership of the Mining Marshals, a Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps
( NSCDC ) special taskforce set up by the Federal government to fight the menace of illegal mining, listed multiple investigations they have conducted in relation to complaints against the conglomerate.
“In our first year of operation, out of the 10 cases of illegal mining activities from Kogi State, seven of them involved Dangote Group,” the Squad Commander of the Marshal, John Attah Onoja, told our reporter.
Besides Onoja’s submission, the command also provided seven court cases involving the company and other title holders or communities over the same illegal activities.
The response of the Mining Marshal Squad Commander reads in part:
“As you may have already known, at the commencement of our operations in 2024 following the inauguration of the Mining Marshals, Ankpa Local government area of Kogi State was the first stop of our operation against illegal mining of coal.
“During the said operation, we discovered several illegal mining coal sites were deeply embedded in Ankpa, and that the best way to confront the problem was to shut down the major routes by which the illegally mined coals were transported in trucks, which was the Ajaokuta – Lokoja road.
“We also discovered that the major buyer of this coal was Dangote Group, for use at its cement plant in Obajana, and that you cannot independently ascertain which of the sites a particular truck was coming from, because none of the drivers or agents transporting these minerals had what we call letter of identification for movement of minerals, as required by Section 134(1) and (2) of the Nigerian Mining Regulations, 2011.”
As part of measures to stop the illegal activities, the Mining Marshal said they commenced a Road Blockage Exercise on the 28th of April, 2024 to identify and arrest the trucks and drivers involved in it.
“In one day alone, and just within a few hours of mounting a roadblock on the said route, we arrested 7 Dangote Trucks, and a number of others,” it stated.
However, there came another challenge for the struggling agency – the space to keep the arrested trucks!
“And then, we realised we needed a large expanse of land as exhibit yard within the area, to enable us ground these trucks for investigation and detain them for prosecution,” the agency said. “We made efforts, but none of the locals were willing to give us such expanse of land without paying. And that was a problem in the absence of appropriated funds.”
The alternative they had was to be moving the arrested trucks to Abuja for impoundment.
“But we realised that moving several coal trucks to Abuja on a daily basis after arrest was not sustainable, as some of them were in fact breaking down in transit.
“So, we opted to move them to the Exhibit Yard of NSCDC in Lokoja, which became immediately filled up to capacity, while we had several other trucks lined up by the roadside within town.
“The trucks were soon becoming a nuisance on the roads where they were parked, and within days after, we had to be calling in the Kogi State Fire Service to deal with some of the coals that were igniting in the trucks impounded, due to volatility.
“In view of these challenges, we had to halt arrests and pursue another strategy to confront the problem.”
The Squad Commander of the Mining Marshals also said they wrote to Dangote, inviting their directors for investigations.
“But, they never complied,” he said. “Rather than honour the invitation, however, they sent delegations to plead some very concerning causes, saying that they needed more coals to power their plant in Obajana beyond what they could source from their duly licensed mineral title areas, and that their plant at Obajana would shut down if their coal supply is interrupted by our operations which, according to them, could trigger some emergencies in the market.”
After inability to reach a truce, the Mining Marshals charged several arrested Dangote Group’s drivers to court and the cases are currently before the Federal High Court, Abuja Judicial Division.
The details of the litigations are provided below:
1. FHC/ABJ/CR/212/2024 – AGF v. MOHAMMED LAWAL, with Dangote Truck No. KBT 164 XB containing 29 tons of Coal.
2. FHC/ABJ/CR/213/2024 – AGF v. ADEDOKUN TAIWO, with Dangote Truck No. KBK 491 XA containing 29 tons of Coal.
3. FHC/ABJ/CR/214/2024 – AGF v. AHMED MOHAMMED, with Dangote Truck No. TRN 121 XA containing 18 tons of Coal.
4. FHC/ABJ/CR/215/2024 – AGF v. ALI MALLAM TATA, with Dangote Truck No. DKD 677 XA containing 25 tons of Coal.
5. FHC/ABJ/CR/216/2024 – AGF v. DAHIRU ABDULLAHI, with Dangote Truck No. DUT 99 XA containing 27 tons of Coal.
6. FHC/ABJ/CR/217/2024 – AGF v. IBRAHIM ABDULRAHMAN, with Dangote Truck No. GWL 121 YM containing 40 tons of Coal.
7. FHC/ABJ/CR/218/2024 – AGF v. DAHIRU ABDULLAHI, with Dangote Truck No. NSR 393 ZU containing 29 tons of Coal.
Why industries are opting for Coal
Beyond the rising calls for Energy Transition and global efforts to stem so-called dirty energy sources, industrialists (even in the industrialised west) have continued to rely on coal as a cheap source of energy for production.
This explains why the industrialized nations, including the world’s Big Polluters like the United States, China, India, among others, continue to shrug off whatever efforts to discourage the usage of the commodity, contrary to several resolutions of the annual Conference of Parties (COP).
Coal is way much cheaper than any other sources of energy, especially for industrial use. And it is the same reality in Nigeria also. A rough analysis is done below to stablish this fact.
According to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), for instance, the amount of electricity that would power industrial production for a day, would be 100 times costlier than if coal is used.
In terms of what power they can produce, 100,000 tonnes of coal carry about 2.4 quadrillion joules of energy. At realistic conversion efficiency of 35 per cent, this yields about 233 gigawatt hours, enough to run a 1,000 megawatt plant for about 9 to 10 days. By contrast, 1,000 megawatts of electricity supplies 1 gigawatt hour every hour, totalling 24 gigawatt hours in a day but at a much higher cost.
The comparison shows that while 1,000 megawatts of electricity offers immediate delivery at a steep cost under NERC’s approved tariff, 100,000 tonnes of coal, though requiring conversion, provides longer duration and clearly far cheaper bulk energy for industrial production.
Experts berate government over alleged regulation failure
Industry experts and environmental rights activists said the issues are intertwined between moral dilemma and failure of governance.
Olamide Martins Ogunlade, Associate Director on Climate Change at the Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), told this reporter that the recurring event provides a cautionary tale on the state of the mining sector in Nigeria.
“Apart from the review of the Nigeria Mining Act 2007, which is long overdue, has also called for democratizing the sector to ensure transparency, accountability, and some level of community oversight,” Ogunlade said. “CAPPA is not unaware of the attempts of big corporations to monopolize the sector and further subvert the already-fragile policy framework in the country
” In a number of places, we have seen the infiltration of these corporations into communal heritage, mostly land resources, fueling discord and unnecessary war among the locals; they also influence traditional rulers to issue false consent letters to mining companies without due diligence and dialogue.
“So, it’s a whole lot that needs to be unpacked and deconstructed, with the bulk of the work rests on the government. Policy adjustment is not debatable; sustained dialogue is necessary, and democratization of the sector will guarantee local inclusion and maximization of the sector’s potential,” he added.
Philip Jakpor, the Executive Director at the Renevyln Development Initiative, an environmental advocacy group based in Lagos, said the mining sector in Nigeria is still largely opaque and many of the operators act without recourse to rule of law.
“Legal operations go side by side with illegal mining because the agencies that are supposed to monitor and enforce compliance with Nigeria’s mining laws are either lacking in capacity or sometimes complicit in the illegalities. We have seen countless cases where different security outfits of the government clash with each other and there have even been deaths recorded in their bid to protect illegal miners,” he said.
He, however, makes case for proper integration of the community people into the system.
“As for local communities that are involved in artisanal mining as is the case in Kogi, they are mere victims of a system that short-changes them. That’s why they feel they must take their destinies in their hands in terms of benefit sharing. Don’t forget that the land and the resources being extracted by firms that are not connected to the communities, actually belong to the people and most times, there are no tangible benefits for locals,” Jakpor said.
“We have seen and heard of many cases where mining firms engage in divide and rule after signing Community Development Agreements (CDAs) with host communities and neglect their obligations to the people. That is why in most host communities, the locals believe it is better to get involved in extracting what is in their soil, rather than leave it to outsiders who would leave them empty handed after the lands are no longer productive in terms of yielding solid minerals. This is exactly what the local people in the coal mining region feel.”
On his part, Taliat Afosi, President of the Association of Youths in Mining, said the battle cannot be won by government fiat alone.
“On the part of the licensed operators, they may have to involve the community people, employ their youths and place some of them in leadership positions. That would provide local security and open channel of dialogue and collaboration with between them and the host community,” he said. “The second thing they can do is to ensure they deliver on their Corporate Social Responsibility for the community. Build schools, healthcare centers, provide electricity and whatever that can make life easier for the people.”
