The Plateau State Government on Tuesday ordered members of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who will be stationed around the Lamingo dam to shoot on sight any miner found around the area following the drowning of an illegal miner Monday night.
The death of the illegal miner came barely a month after the NSCDC arrested four suspects for illegal mining in the dam.
The dam area became a beehive for tin miners sometime around 2013 following the discovery of tin while the construction of the road that leads to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) was on.
The Plateau State Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy, Eng. Jafaru Wuyep who was accompanied to the dam site by the acting General Manager of the Plateau State Water Board, Lambert Gonzuk said someone drowned at the dam on Monday night when he tried to swim across to avoid arrest by security agents. The deceased whose corps is yet to be evacuated had drowned in the middle of the dam and efforts by security agents to rescue him have so far failed.
Also speaking, the acting General Manager of the Water Board Lambert Gonzuk explained that the activities of illegal miners were impacting negatively on the quality of the water and the structures of the dam, and all activities around the dam had been prohibited.
