In this second and concluding part of our investigative report, THEOPHILUS ADEDOKUN detailed the infractions of Dangote Coal Mines Ltd (DCML), a subsidiary of Dangote Group, against host communities.
It also unravelled how the Dangote Companies, in connivance with the Benue State Ministry of Land, swindled Indigenous communities with the Ghana Mining Act.
Host but lost communities
Tales from the immediate host communities of Dangote Coal Mines Ltd—Effeche and Abache—are heartbreaking. Southern Herald’s findings indicate that the two communities have not only lost their pre-mining environmental beauty and serenity but also their social and cultural harmony, all due to Dangote Coal Mines Ltd’s destructive and disruptive activities.
Though they were promised prosperity, the communities wallow in unplanned poverty due to the exploitative activities of Dangote, whose impacts are far-reaching.
Findings by SouthernHerald at the mine site in Abache revealed that the once lush landscape and fertile farmlands have been disfigured since the commencement of mining by Dangote Coal Mines Ltd.
Mounds of tawny soil have surrounded the mining site as each scooped-out remained fresh. It reflects a depression as if a giant hand had reached inside the earth and turned it inside out, with hectares of land stripped bare of vegetation, leaving bloody-red-brown sandy mountains of soil.
Pollution, dynamite blasting and erosion are making natives vulnerable to diseases and life tougher.
There are no obvious benefits of the mining, either in Abache or Effeche. Coupled with this is the tragic fact that coal mining has contaminated every water source within and beyond the two communities. The situation is intense in Abache as building collapses are rampant due to incessant blasting.
A youth leader in Abache, ThankGod Onuh, bemoaned that the unceasing blasts from the coal mine have caused several buildings to have significant cracks.
He told SouthernHerald that the only thing Dangote Coal Limited provided for Abache was a borehole, which he claimed stopped functioning a few months after construction.
“You can see that we are patching our houses. We even have a semi-flat that collapsed because of dynamite. There is no concrete development that the community has achieved. This borehole was constructed three years ago and the truth is that it brought out water instantly but stopped within a few months. However, we told them to repair it and there has not been a response.”
SouthernHerald discovered remnants of crumbled buildings due to dynamite explosions. The mark of the destructive dynamite is in every home – gaping walls that were either recently coated with cement or with fresh cracks.
Although former Senate President, Ameh Ebute had sued Dangote at the Makurdi Division of the Federal High Court on the community’s behalf and had got a mild favourable judgement, the community demanded a sum of N500 million in compensation for damages caused by Dangote. The company was ordered to compensate the host communities with a sum of N10 million naira.
The community is pessimistic about favourable outcomes. Onuh says, “They are telling us that Dangote is a big man and we cannot fight him. We don’t have money to fight him and he is wealthy and can do whatever he feels for the community,” Onuh told SouthernHerald.
Question Marks on CDA
Mining began in Abache in 2021 but there is no agreement between Dangote and Abache, says Michael Ogu, the community’s secretary.
Emphasising the company connived with some community members to have a verbal agreement rather than a written and signed CDA, Ogu denied the existence of a mutual agreement.
Thankgod Onuh showed SouthernHerald the remains of a two-bedroom flat that collapsed after a dynamite blast. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
“What happened was that some of our members betrayed us with a verbal agreement with the company and they are members of this community and they are our brothers. We are separated as we are speaking because there is no written agreement and nothing like that was done. Dangote only promised that they would do it and that is why we are having a clash with Dangote. We have stopped their work for over two months now and they are in their fourth year of mining without CDA,” Ogu told SouthernHerald recently.
Dangote marred Indigenous community with Devastation
This used to be a vast, fertile farmland. The guide in the picture explains to SouthernHerald. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
Host communities complained about the radical alteration of their socio-economic life. Farmlands have been turned into mining sites, and many economic trees have vanished due to the change. Contaminants have destroyed the crops, cashews, palm plantations, and other cash crops cultivated along the Okollo and Umabe rivers. This implies that farmlands and economic trees spared from strip mining become casualties of mine-induced floods and chemicals, which wither them. Prevalently those within the banks of River Okollo and River Umabe.
Christopher Idengeli, a septuagenarian farmer says, “The flood from Dangote has caused a lot of damage to our economic trees like palm trees, cashews and bananas; they are being killed and many of them have died, including cassava farms, and we were not given compensation concerning that.”
He bemoaned that their land had lost fertility, noting that it had taken a direct toll on his feeding. “Most of our land is grabbed or polluted and it has lost fertility. The way we feed these days cannot be compared to years before Dangote mining operation. Most of these crops and our farm produce are being consumed by us here.
Arsenic found in water polluted by Dangote Coal Mines Business is beyond the NIS permitted limit. Yet they drink it. Photo Credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
“But since there is not much land to farm, feeding becomes difficult. Those of us who ate three square meals before could barely afford one now. Our bodies are not as agile as before and we now think of survival only,” Idengeli lamented.
The irony is that the wealth from the soil of these communities is used to power plants that generate billions of naira in revenue but natives languish in hunger, hardship and misery.
Moraine Idengeli Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
Moraine Idengeli, a 68-year-old farmer lost her farmland to a flash flood due to water released from the mine site. She became troubled after the incident.
“I recently had an operation and I’m still recovering. I am the one begging them to compensate me for my yam, water yam, cassava, corn,” Moraine said that she was prevented by Effeche-Akpali’s traditional ruler, Samuel Ameh, from accessing her compensation.
“I am unhappy; I don’t have money to buy from the market or sell food commodities. Akpali people blocked us from receiving palliatives and compensation from Dangote. I have been begging the representatives of Dangote for my benefits,” she said.
Dead economic trees by the bank of the River Umabe in Effeche Akpali were destroyed by run-off contaminants. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
Anarchy, Displacement and Dispute over Land Ownership
Farmers who cannot cope with the dwindling farm produce are forced to migrate from their ancestral homes in search of livelihood elsewhere, multiple interviews by SouthernHerald revealed.
Natives claimed that they had granted Dangote consent to mine. Paul Akaji expressed regret that their community not only lacked basic infrastructure, but many natives had ended up in penury as the company takeover of their property.
Noting that clansmen have been waging violence against one another due to land ownership tussle between Effeche and Akpali, he accused Samuel Ameh of evicting indigenes through assault, threats and claims that Effeche was not their home.
Paul Akaji, a farmer, spitting some of the contaminated water he drinks from the River Umabe. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
Investigation showed that these evictions have forced some Indigenous members of the host communities to leave their ancestral land in search of homes elsewhere. “They didn’t compensate me but they gave my uncle some amount and I bought a motorcycle from that money. However, the other community head (Samuel Ameh) and Dangote connived to send their boys to attack me and burn my motorcycle,” he alleged.
“A few months ago, if they see you here with me, they would come and beat me, saying that I am a stranger in this land,” Akaji told SouthernHerald.
The Four Cs: Committee, CDA, Compensation and Corruption
An Indigenous organisation in the District, Edumoga Youth Movement (EYM), began the initial resistance against the non-environmental operations of Dangote coal mining exploration that resulted in pollution when it began in 2020.
Thankgod Onuh pointed at the non-functioning borehole. Photo Credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
An ad-hoc committee consisting of 9 members was set up to assess the extent of pollution affecting the populations that depend on these rivers. The committee was responsible for evaluating the magnitude of damages that were caused and proffering sustainable recommendations. Two Dangote Coal Mines representatives were members of the committee, namely Engineer Faniyi Segun and Surveyor Samuel Okonkwo, a document obtained by SouthernHerald showed.
The committee recommended the provision of potable water. It was approved by Dangote Group, a document obtained by SouthernHerald and signed by Surveyor Okonkwo in July 2020, showed.
Troves of documents obtained by SouthernHerald showed that Dangote failed to implement the committee’s recommendation, and none of the villages has access to either boreholes or any other alternative water sources.
Fishermen whose subsistence was linked to the polluted rivers lost their livelihood.
Cadmium found in water polluted by Dangote Coal Business is beyond the NIS permitted limit. Photo Credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
Cadmium found in water polluted by Dangote Coal is beyond the NIS permitted limit. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus“Dangote did not construct any borehole in the communities affected and members of the committee compromised by obtaining the sum of 100 thousand naira from the company monthly,” Godfrey Owotikwu, the national president of EYM, told SouthernHerald.
Apart from the bribes paid to committee members, he alleged that traditional rulers were paid, which ended the prospect of a borehole provision.
It was reported that traditional chiefs are on Dangote’s payroll. A sum of eighteen million naira was obtained from Dangote by a traditional ruler in Okpokwu LGA, Chief James Okefe. This amount is different from the bribes paid to compromised members of EYM.
Though Effeche community members denied the existence of a proper CDA, a copy obtained by SouthernHerald showed that one exists.
The document showed the company has not fulfilled its legal obligation of providing the host communities with the benefits.
Corporate Social Responsibilities Shrouded in Secrecy
A document by the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), entitled “Approved List of Active Pre-January 2021 Community Development Agreements”, does not reveal any CDA between Dangote and host communities.
SouthernHerald obtained CDA’s copy that Dangote Coal Mines Limited and Effeche-Akpali signed in March 2020, showing the failure of Dangote to actualise its obligation.
Articles 1 to 6 of the agreement noted that Dangote should provide potable water, health care centres/clinics, vocational training centres, scholarships, micro-credit schemes, monthly lump sum and yearly compensation to affected farmers, electricity, allied infrastructure like roads and employment opportunities for community members.
Stripping during the commencement of operation mining of coal in Effeche-Akpali.
But of all the obligations in the CDA, Dangote Coal Mines only provided three: a scholarship worth 1 million naira annually shared among 10 host community members, a non-functional borehole, and electricity for the community. This breach violates the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act (NMMA) 2007 and the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Regulation (NMMR) 2011.
SouthernHerald could not provide information because page 6 of the CDA between Effeche-Akpali and Dangote Industries Limited was missing. An insider from the company confided in SouthernHerald that page 6 was removed by Dangote because it contained information that would incriminate the company’s management concerning beneficiaries who were short-changed.
The only infrastructure in the community seen was non-functional boreholes in Abache and Effeche.
“The CDA signed by the company and host communities had helped accelerate the provision of infrastructural development around the host communities,” said reports. These lauded achievements are untraceable and unverifiable.
Violations: Traditional Chiefs, Rulers cash-backed by Dangote
Speaking on the CDA between Dangote Coal Mines and Effeche-Akpali to SouthernHerald, the village head, Samuel Ameh, affirmed that the community benefited in terms of scholarships and electrification, but could not account for natives who benefited from the scheme. He is unable to provide a copy of the CDA.
“I cannot provide you a copy of the CDA and members who benefitted from the scholarship,” he said, stating that the company built “blocks of classrooms”. Ameh confirmed that traditional chiefs are being paid monthly stipends.
ESIA is alleged to be unapproved.
“They pay me 70 thousand naira monthly but we have stopped it since June. They brought a paper for us to sign but backdated the agreement to 2020 which is not supposed to be. I have received 70 thousand naira every month since their commencement, community chairmen and heads are paid between 20 thousand and 30 thousand naira,” Ameh said.
Revealing Dangote and Effeche Community are at loggerheads, Ameh explained that doubts surrounding the status of the Company’s ESIA and CDA made the community halt its mining operation.
Ameh’s disclosures confirmed our findings that Dangote Coal Mines Limited lacked an approved ESIA, which is against section 15 of the NMMR (2011) that emphasises that an approved ESIA is mandatory before operations.
Sources in the Federal Ministry of Environment, who pleaded anonymity, independently disclosed to SouthernHerald that the activities of Dangote Coal Mines in Benue did have an approved ESIA. This source explained that the ESIA document presented by the company is not approved by the Federal Ministry of Environment.
Assassination, Communal Clashes Fester
Apart from the operation triggering waves of displacements and disunity, a series of assassinations and intra-communal violence have erupted since the mining began.
SouthernHerald found that Effeche and Abache villages had become hotbeds of communal clashes and violence. These conflicts led to the assassination of a native of Abache and lecturer at Benue State Polytechnic, Joseph Onuh.
Onuh was allegedly ambushed, beaten to a pulp and abandoned on the road. He was confirmed dead at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu.
His violent death was followed by a series of unrest across neighbouring communities.
Recalling his ordeal from other clanmen aggrieved with his unending quest to secure compensation and environmental justice, Fedoje Oguche, a native of Effeche, alleged that Samuel Ameh of witch-hunting and attempting to murder him because he pursued justice and accountability on compensation.
Narrating how he escaped through an inch when Samuel Ameh allegedly sent members to abduct him, he lamented that his phone was stolen during the incident.
Interviews confirmed that this incident and Ameh’s eviction efforts.
Reacting to these allegations, Ameh claimed that the occupied farmlands by Effeche Community belonged to his primogenitor. “My great-grandfather gave them the land to farm and I can evict them and collect back the land,” while denying the existence of any legal documents to support his claims.
All We Know about Dangote Coal Mine Ltd and Dangote Industries Ltd Status
It is a statutory requirement that any company in the solid mineral industry that intends to mine must obtain and acquire the requisite certifications and licenses. These cut across relevant federal government ministries, agencies, departments and parastatals. Among these is the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO), an agency responsible for approving mining leases.
MCO granted Dangote Industries Ltd (DIL) approval to mine coal in Olamaboro LGA in Kogi State on Thursday, February 21, 2019. Approval seems to have shifted to Okpokwu LGA of Benue State. This finding indicates that DIL or Dangote Coal Mines Ltd lacked the exclusive right to mine coal in Benue communities, especially where it is doing so now in Effeche-Akpali and Abache.
The letter, signed by A. H. Damagum, on behalf of the Director General of MCO, revealed that the mining lease number is 28855ML and the number of cadastral units is 225. Although the geographical coordinate provided on the document showed a different location, which is Olamaboro LGA of Kogi State, a list of companies published on December 31, 2023, by MCO showed that DIL possessed a valid mineral title to mine coal and clay in Benue State.
Benue State Ministry of Land and Solid Minerals, Makurdi. Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
SouthernHerald checked the open portal of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development’s Integrated Automation and Interactive Solid Minerals Portal (IAISMP) to ascertain if either Dangote Coal Mines or DIL are duly licensed by the ministry.
Multiple searches on the portal showed that Dangote Coal Mines Ltd does not exist. Searches on the portal, however, showed that ‘Dangote Industries Limited’ exist across nine areas in Kogi and Ogun states.
SouthernHerald found that Dangote Cement Company Plc is a legally backed company with an active mining lease in Benue State, but the company is leased for limestone in Gboko LGA.
Although Dangote Industries Limited was established in April 1985, it is considered active in doing business in Nigeria by updating its annual returns to the CAC.
Contrarily, Dangote Coal Mines Limited, founded in August 2016, was marked inactive, indicating a failure of the company to comply with Sections 417–424 of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).
Cashing out from Indigenous Communities: State Ministries, Dangote Swindling Natives with Ghana Mining Law
Mining of natural resources and solid minerals remains the exclusive right of the Federal Government based on the 1999 Constitution, but the Land Use Act of 1978, and the Public Lands Acquisition Laws of states specify the procedures that a state must oversee, plan and implement measures to compensate the affected people.
Certified True Copy of the list of compensation claimants Photo Credit: Adedokun Theophilus/SouthernHerald
The compensation of affected farmers was carried out by the Benue State Ministry of Land and Solid Minerals. It was expected to be under the regulatory provisions of Nigeria and Benue State, but a Certified True Copy (CTC) of the list of compensation claimants, titled: “Computation Report Sheets Volume 3 for Odoba and Effeche Villages in Ogadigbo and Okpokwu Local Government Areas,” showed otherwise.
The document was approved by State Land Deed Registrar, Emmanuel Chir, and it showed that valuation was conducted with the Republic of Ghana Minerals and Mining (Compensation and Resettlement) Regulations, 2012 (L.I 2175) to swindle affected farmers of their benefits. This contradicts the Land Use Act 1978 provision in line with NMMR and NMMA. The sizes of farmlands and geolocation were also not recorded while affected farmers were missing from the list.
Ghana Mining Law cited a regulatory provision for farmers in Nigeria. Photo Credit: Adedokun Theophilus/Southern Herald
A letter submitted to the State Ministry of Land and Survey, Makurdi in April by the Ai’Akaji family alleged that the names of indigenous farmers and inhabitants were removed and replaced with non-members of the community. The family stressed that missing volumes of the compensation list were made inaccessible because of the level of corruption in the compensation of indigenous farmers.
The letter reads in part: “Finding from Certified true copy of Dangote Coal Mines Limited, volume 3 of the compensation list and related document attached to CTC request released to us by Ministry of Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals, Makurdi on April 12, 2022, and September 13, 2022 respectively, indicated 28 members of Al’Akaji Ebbeh Family as lands owner (individual’s lands owners). [sic]
“However, many names of our family members and members of Eheche (Effeche) Olaiakaji community who are land owners are missing on the volumes 3 compensation list.”
The fraud in the compensation process and disparities in payment make the conditions and circumstances of affected farmers dire since the company ejected them from their ancestral land without proper compensation.
Findings showed that Dangote Coal Mines Limited deducted 30% of each affected farmer’s compensation sum without the prior approval of Effeche members.
Oguche Fedoje believes that the reduction of their compensation was intentional and a reward to compensate others for connivance.
SouthernHerald contacted the erstwhile Head of Enumeration and Valuations of the state’s Land and Survey Ministry, Agaba Opita Peter. HE confirmed that they were commissioned to evaluate by Dangote Industries Limited, but denied hoarding the accessibility of enumeration documents.
“I retired from service on 15th December 2022. We were commissioned by Dangote Industries Limited and I suppose that all information is available with Dangote Industry Limited at their office at Ankpa,” Agaba said.
Speaking on the trend of corruption in the compensation and enumeration process, a director in the Benue State Ministry of Solid Minerals, Anselm Nege, noted that his ministry would investigate the situation, adding that the state has suspended all mining activities. “We know we issued the deed; we shall investigate and the state government would be happy for your support,” he said. Subsequent calls to Nege were answered by him.
That is not all, SouthernHerald revealed several statutory violations by DIL or Dangote Coal Mines Ltd, as the case may be, in areas of pollution, licensing, ESIA procedures, CDAs, and CSR, among others.
Compensation List Photo credit: Adedokun Theophilus/ SouthernHerald
DIL says its CSR and HSSE are seen as drivers of environmental protection, but this investigation and, indeed previous reports, show the opposite. “We give utmost regard to safety, security of persons, preservation of operating environment and peaceful coexistence with host communities and the public,” it stressed in its ESIA document.
Everybody Goes Mute
To ascertain clarity on the alleged infractions, such as pollution, compensation issues, corruption, and internal disharmony in the host communities, SouthernHerald reached out to the General Manager, Special Duties, Dangote Mines Limited, Nuhu Elujah, in September 2024 for the company’s reaction. Elujah declined to speak but directed that the information should be sent to Lagos.
At the time of filling this report, none of the messages had been responded to.
Several messages forwarded to the company by this reporter were not responded to. These findings were sent to the official electronic mail addresses provided to the public by the Mine Cadastral Office and National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) on Friday, November 1, but have not been replied to at press time.
This investigation is supported by the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) with funding support from the MacArthur Foundation
