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The Federal Government has said it will begin a clampdown and the arrest of all firms and individuals engaged in illegal mining activities in Cross River State.

This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Federal Mines Officer in Cross River State, Ayelabola Olubunmi, during a fact-finding meeting with traditional leaders and stakeholders in Butatong community, in the Boki Local Government Area of the state.

He said the government was losing millions of naira in revenue to illegal mining operations carried out by undocumented firms in forest communities across the state.

He said, “This meeting was convened following reports of influx of foreigners and private groups into communities around the Okwango division of the Cross River National Park, amid concerns over mining activities in the area. The Federal government will begin a clampdown and the arrest of all firms and individuals engaged in illegal mining activities in the state.

“There are a lot of mining operations in Okwa villages 1 and 2, which are enclaves in the Cross River National Park, adjoining Butatong. These operators are not known to the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals and they do not go through legal procedures, thereby denying the Federal Government its due royalties.

“We don’t want firms to enter our forests for mining activities through the backdoor. We’ll definitely fish them out; the ministry will soon intensify sensitisation and enforcement visits to affected communities.”

The mines officer warned the traditional rulers and community leaders against granting mining consent.

He said the ministry had officially licensed firms authorised to undertake mining activities in designated parts of the state, adding that the government needed companies that could be held accountable.

“Mining activities must be in line with Minerals and Mining Act of 2007. For illegal miners and those aiding them, the Federal Government would treat their operations as economic sabotage”, he said.

He urged residents to remain vigilant and report mining activities that could expose communities to environmental, health and security risks.

The Clan Head of Butatong, HRH Otu Gregory Apah, urged indigenes not to harbour illegal miners and appealed to the government to provide basic social amenities to the mineral-rich community.

The Chairman of Butatong Community Council, Benedict Apah, said he was not aware of mineral deposits in Butatong itself but confirmed that mining activities were ongoing in neighbouring enclave communities, including Okwango, Okwa 1, Okwa 2 and Bumagi.

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The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has warned against the alleged attempt to take over the ethnic lands in the Middle Belt region and hand them over to Fulani pastoralists under the federal government’s new National Livestock Policy.

SMBLF said it “suspects that the true aim of this policy is the creation of permanent settlement zones for nomadic Fulani herdsmen, whose violent activities over the years have contributed to the capture and occupation of thousands of square kilometres of land across the Middle Belt and even parts of southern states.”

In a statement signed by Afenifere chieftain and Chairman of SMBLF, Oladipo Olaitan, the group stated that “apart from the genocide they (Fulani herdsmen) have been accused of carrying out in the Middle Belt, they have rendered millions homeless, and cannot be handed the lands of their victims as a reward for their heinous crimes.”

The body said it was alarmed “by the audacious attempt by the federal government to take over lands belonging to ethnic communities in the Middle Belt under a spurious pilot scheme being introduced in the name of a New National Livestock Policy.”

“It is striking that this experiment is being concentrated almost entirely in the Middle Belt, despite the vast expanse of sparsely populated and unused land available in many parts of the far north, where Fulani emirs dominate most of the lands,” it noted.

“The scheme is being presented as a pilot, but if it is not firmly opposed by the communities being short-changed, it will inevitably be expanded to other parts of the country, including the southern states.”

SMBLF explained that it was not opposed to modern livestock production, ranching or the development of the livestock value chain but strongly rejects what it described as “the opaque, coercive and discriminatory manner in which this policy is being pursued to the exclusive advantage of nomadic Fulani herdsmen.”

Calling on the communities and governments of the southern states to reject the policy, SMBLF told the federal government that “the Land Use Act of 1978 is not a licence for arbitrary land grabbing.

“It vests rural land in local councils, recognises customary rights of occupancy, and allows revocation only for overriding public interest. It also protects agricultural land, including fallow land, as continuing community property.”

The Southern and Middle Belt leaders noted that “ranching is an economic enterprise that is privately driven.” They maintained that “the government cannot disguise compulsory land acquisition for specific economic actors as public interest.”

According to them, records show that some of these nomadic pastoralists are not Nigerian citizens, and “any policy that ignores these realities while allocating vast ancestral lands to them under state protection is unacceptable to the indigenous people of the Middle Belt and the South.

“We have seen similar attempts before under different names, including the rejected RUGA and Cattle Colony proposals, which Nigerians resisted because of their implications for land ownership and demographic restructuring. The SMBLF will not accept such a policy.”

Meanwhile, the group demands full and transparent disclosure of the proposed ranching sites, the legal instruments for their acquisition, the ownership structure, security concerns, the beneficiaries, the size of the lands involved and the source of funding.

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will display the list of candidates nominated by political parties for the February 6, 2027 governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on Saturday, August 29.

The governorship election will be held in 28 states, while State Houses of Assembly elections will take place across the 36 states of the federation.

The governorship poll will be conducted in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Enugu, Ebonyi, Abia, Kwara, Benue, Plateau, Niger and Nasarawa states.

Other states where governorship elections will be held are Borno, Yobe, Adamawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto.

Governorship elections will not be held in Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Edo, Bayelsa, Anambra, Imo and Kogi states.

The 22 registered political parties are expected to field fresh candidates in Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Kwara and Nasarawa, where incumbent governors’ tenures will expire in 2027.

Meanwhile, political parties contesting the presidential and National Assembly elections have until Saturday, August 29, to submit their final list of candidates to INEC.

This follows the August 22 deadline for candidates to withdraw from the 2027 elections, under Section 31 of the 2026 Electoral Act.

The section provides that a candidate may withdraw from an election by submitting a written notice, signed by the candidate and accompanied by a sworn affidavit, personally to the political party that nominated the candidate.

The party must forward the withdrawal and affidavit to the commission no later than 90 days before the election.

INEC is expected to publish the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates, comprising Senate and House of Representatives candidates, on Saturday, September 12.