Ministry Confirms 28 Children Dead from Lead Poisoning in Niger

in Abuja The Ministry of Mines and Steel Development yesterday confirmed the death on 28 children from lead poisoning in Niger State.

A statement from the ministry said a case of lead poisoning purportedly resulting from the activities of informal (illegal) miners in Angwan Maijero and Angwan Karo, Madaka District, Rafi Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State was reported by its Federal Mines Officer in charge of the state, last Wednesday.

According to Deputy Director, Press, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Ambrose Momoh, the ministry had dispatched its Ministerial Task Force to Garin Gabas in the same LGA to evacuate illegal miners from sites in mid-2013.

He, however, madeitclearthat stopping illegal mining, which was identified as the cause of lead poisoning, was difficult because the practice was entrenched. “It should be noted that the issue of informal mining activities started during the colonial period, and that the task of clearing over one thousand persons from sites like Angwan Maijero and Angwan Karo would not be an easy one.”

Momoh listed other efforts made by the ministry to tackle this problem as the setting up of a Ministerial Task Team to regularly monitor flash points of informal mining nationwide with the view to sensitising these categories of miners on the dangers inherent in the unsafe mining and processing of minerals, and to formalise them into mining cooperatives for easier monitoring and supervision.

“It is pertinent to state at this juncture that, while not ruling out the chances of lead poisoning as the cause of this illness in this case, it is expected that all relevant stakeholders should cooperate to see that the various intervention activities by both local and international agencies to ameliorate the current situation result in the realisation of the desired effect,” he said.

He added: “As a way of addressing the lead poisoning menace, especially after the Zamfara case, there is in place a collaborative effort with the World Bank, which began two years ago. This effort is aimed at developing a process for streamlining Artisanal and Small Scale mining activities in the country. It is thus expected that the project which the World Bank has appointed the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland to handle will help a great deal in addressing the question of artisanal and small scale mining activities in Nigeria.