Osun State Governor Gboyega Oyetola yesterday decried that illegal mining activities going on in some part of the state, saying the operators are polluting the whole environment with dangerous chemicals.
Oyetola, who was at Ifewara and Ibodi in Atakunmosa West Local Government Area to see a huge landscape degraded by illegal miners, vowed that mining activities would henceforth be regulated in the state.
Addressing newsmen later, Oyetola said: “It is unfortunate that our land is being damaged and farming activity has been destroyed. With what I have seen, one cannot do farming here again because the land has been seriously damaged.
“The grievous damage is the fact that the entire land space had been totally destroyed which hitherto could have been used for agricultural purposes and socio-economic development of our state.
“The whole environment has been polluted by dangerous chemicals applied to explore gold. These chemicals are not only dangerous for human being but hazardous to farming. Though it is important for us to explore the possibilities in mining, it must not be at the expense of the welfare and health of the people.
“Mining must be done with proper regulation, and in any case what is going here is purely illegal mining, they are destroying everywhere. So, I am here to prevent what happened in the Niger Delta from being replicated here. We are not saying people should not do mining, but this has to be regulated.”
