Abuja Tremor: FG Suspends Mining Activities in Affected Areas 

Abuja Tremor: FG Suspends Mining Activities in Affected Areas 
By Kasim Sumaina in Abuja
The Federal Government has suspended all mining activities in and around areas that experienced minor earth tremor last week at Mpape, Abuja.
The Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Alh. Abubakar Bawa Bwari, said federal government through his ministry ordered the suspension in order to enable the team of experts put together by the ministry investigating the incidence do a thorough job.
Bwari, in a statement to the press by his Media Aide, Ishaku Kigbu in Abuja, noted that, “getting to the root of the cause of what triggered the tremor would be better achieved without blasting activities around the effected areas.”
According to him, “Even though l would not say the tremor experienced may have to do with escavations around the effected areas until investigations are completed remembering that two years ago there was an incidence like that in Kwoi, in Southern Kaduna, it is better to suspend all mining and blasting activities around affected areas until investigations by experts ascertain its cause.
“They have taken samples to aid their job and there is a need by the government to stop all escavation and mining activities to enable them do a good job.”
He said: “considering that the world is experiencing climate change, some of the unusual incidents could be natural occurrences not envisaged.
“However, government had proactively acquired some geoscientific detecting equipment to detect such happenings and was in the process of installing them when the Abuja incidence occurred.
“The good news is that, Nigeria geographically is not on the lane of earthquakes but we are not relenting since the world over considering climate change things are sometimes happening where they ought not to and, the six geo science equipment when installed will go a long way in the detection of such natural occurrences while not ruling out elements of human induced activities.”
Bwari further said that there was no conclusion yet on the matter since investigation was on going, adding, “we may not have control over some of these occurences but our control mechanism remains that mining is done under best practices.”
He reiterated that Nigerians should not panic, adding,  “Luckily, we have not gotten to the trend where mining would be seen as dangerous in Nigeria.
“We are not located in such dangerous zone. Our men went to the affected areas and checked but no quakes or cracks were found,” he said.

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