“What Venus, this Chinese Company is doing here is very bad. It’s about the biggest quarrying company in the whole of Abuja, yet you cannot construct the road that you use to haul your granite. I know Istanbul (the Turkish Company) is also here but the Chinese Company is very uncooperative. It’s not always they pour water that they use to mitigate the hazardous effect of the dust…”
With the above words, a Bmuko, Dutse, Bwari, Abuja resident who would not want to be mentioned provoked the research that engendered this report.
Bmuko is a solid mineral-rich community in Bwari local government area LGA of FCT. It’s a home to mining activities mainly by two quarrying companies popularly known as Chinese and Turkish quarries. Daily blasting and haulage activities go on in Bmuko. Rock pebbles sometimes fall on roof tops and cause damage to buildings When blasts take place as this Reporter witnessed, the sound is so deafening that one could think it’s a bomb blast. Certainly, this could negatively affect ear drums.
Perhaps, most disturbing is dust from the untarred road into the settlement which spews dust into the atmosphere as vehicles are daily taking granite and stone dusts out. Investigations reveal that the two companies water the road to mitigate the hazardous effect of dusts but this is not regular.
When this Reporter sought to know why Bmuko Road has not been constructed, the management of Istanbul quarry said it waters its own portion as and when due and that it is waiting to reach an accord with the Chinese company to use asphalt to construct Bmuko Road, saying that it has always kept the agreement with the Chief of Bmuko, Alhaji Ibrahim Yahaya Dangana.
This was corroborated by the Chief who also said that talks are underway for the construction of the road with asphalt complete with modern bridges.
It is worthy of note that this Reporter met a brick wall at Venus Quarry ( the Chinese Company). All efforts to speak with the management proved abortive. A Contractor (Depositor) in the premises who wouldn’t want to be mentioned said, “Venus sees the fixing of the road as a duty of government. Hence they do palliative by pouring water to reduce dust pollution”.
According to Nigeria Mineral and Mining Act 2007, what these quarries are doing is in contravention of the Law. It is foolhardy, unacceptable that you are exploring and exploiting the resources of a people yet refuse to construct the road on which you haul the product.
Bmuko Road should therefore, be constructed without further delay if anything, to forestall the occurrence of an epidemic.