By Ayodele Oni

A concerned indigene of Osun State has written to Governor Gboyega Oyetola urging him to urgently check activities of some illegal gold miners now trooping into the State.

In an open letter to the Governor, Engineer Adebisi Arinloye, noted that it has become alarming the rate at which illegal gold miners troop to the State from the Northern part of the country where they have been displaced.

In the letter, titled. Before Our Oasis of Peace Degenerates to a Desert of Insurgence,  Arinloye  pointed out that “mad men with serious criminal intent and terrorism as core values (apology to Chief Obasanjo) are about to completely seize our cutlass of security in this State, courtesy of ongoing and dangerously expanding artisan mining activities on our land.

“In the first place Sir, Gold mining (even when carried out under the best of regulations and precautions) is perhaps the most destructive industry in the world, this I know by virtue of my training as a Geophysicist (with special interest in hydrogeology and groundwater).

“Gold mining effects are irrecoverably devastating to ecology and ecosystem as it alters landscape irretrievably and poses the greatest of threats to the oldest industry in human history; food production industry.

“Perpetually present at gold mining sites are deadly pollutants such as zinc, cyanide, mercury and similar heavy metals that pose grave danger to both surface and groundwater.

“These materials are capable of remaining at the mining sites for more than 50 years after the mining activity has ended.

“Mining unearths huge amount of ores that bear these precious substances; gold, silver and other sulfides which on reaction with water in the presence of air produce sulfuric acids which most time seep into surface and groundwater, this is referred to as ACID MINE DRAINAGE.

“Acid mine drainage is over 200 times more lethal on surface water, groundwater, soil fertility, and pollination than acid rain.

“No society in human history is resilient to the impact of quality water shortage because the strand of quality water availability and growth in one hand and the lack of it and bone-crushing poverty in another hand are closely knit.

“Osun state is named after River Osun, as of today Your Excellency, this hitherto natural endowment is speedily becoming a poisonous liability to Osun people.

“As a matter of fact Sir, this great River and many of its tributaries across the State are on the verge of being completely ruined on the altar of reckless gold mining activities. Your Excellency Sir, gold is not more precious than water.

“Whoever consumes water polluted by heavy metals automatically becomes a candidate of either trachea or lung cancer, researches on global cancer statistics continues to indicate scary upsurge in areas where mining activities are prevalent.

“While our surface and groundwater are under serious threat, for now, surface water is the worst hit and we have a sacred duty to do something before it is too late.

“Your Excellency, the future of our public water supply lies in the dammed surface water and we have a crucial duty to protect it.

“I do not know whether His Excellency has noticed the sudden disappearance of those fishermen, mostly Hausas, who used to operate on Osun River?

“Yes, they have disappeared almost completely because their naturally occurring yet dependable engine of economic opportunity has suffered an awful rape from metallic pollution.

“Their harvests must have been very poor in quantity and quality, and hence their abandonment of what must have turned an unrewarding adventure for them.

“After years of massive yet blind gold exploitation in some parts of Northwest, the gold deposit began to wane, the blood-sucking ‘shylock’ masquerading as gold mining investors began to migrate elsewhere, leaving behind army of youthful labourers with squandered hope, ruined future and whose only inheritance in the heinous trade were weapons procured for them by their criminal employers.

“The awkward template of a state like Zamfara on gold mining operations seems to be what we are now adopting in Osun state, their perilous blueprint appears to be guiding our operations, while fully armed gold mining labourers of well-established criminal portfolios from their region are daily trooping in massively to lead artisan mining operations on our goldmines that are scattered all over the state.

“Expectedly, it has been stories of rapes, of harassments, of intimidations, of forceful eviction of original land owners, of destructions of crops, buildings and valuable properties and of maiming and even cold-blooded killings of our people.

“This is indeed worrisome Your Excellency and it is important you act before it becomes too late.

“Unless you act and urgently too Your Excellency, we may be heading towards the most violent and abominable episode of our history as a people in Osun state, nay Yoruba land. May the good Lord help you Sir.”

It is believed that the unprecedented insecurity in Zamfara State, is a consequence of the illegal gold mining activities in the State. The illegal miners seem to be shifting their activities to Osun State since after the Federal Government’s clampdown on them.

The fear is that Osun State could be reduced to Zamfara State sooner than later if nothing is done to checkmate the situation.