Following an agreement with the Enugu State Government, Milhouse Energy Services Ltd, a coal mining firm at Awhum in Udi Local Government Area is to pay the sum of one billion naira only into the Enugu State Environmental Remediation Trust Fund; the company will also pay a hundred thousand naira only (N100,000) for tax on every truckload of coal evacuated from the site.
The Fund will be managed by an independent committee of professionals and used specifically for the remediation of the affected environment.
Recall that the mining site was one of the many sites sealed by the Enugu State Committee on Review of Mining Activities.
The Committee headed by the Commissioner for Environment and Climate Change, Prof. Sam Ugwu, in September 2023 cracked down on all illegal mining sites in the state; sites without environmental impact certification and remediation plans inclusive.
Also, Enugu State High Court issued an interim injunction restraining Milhouse Energy Services and African Pits & Quarries Ltd, their agents, servants, privies, workers, among others, from carrying on activities, environmental degradation, damaging and interfering in whatsoever manner with the large expanse of land situate at Ibite Awhum.
The Committee Chairman, Prof. Ugwu, revealed that since February 2022, the company has been mining and evacuating coal from the site without any payments or recourse whatsoever to the Enugu State Government.
“We will not accept indiscriminate mining activities and degradation of our environment. We will not accept that people will enter our state and start carting away our resources without recourse to the Enugu State Government.”
“So, we want to see the veracity of the license, which they claim they have from the Federal Government, and we have given them a letter inviting them to a meeting.
“We also want to find out how they have been remitting environmental fees to the Enugu State Ministry of Environment because we will not fold our hands and watch our environment destroyed and lives endangered,” Prof. Ugwu said.
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