Forty years after the Nigerian civil war ended, the Humanitarian De-miners from the Ministry of Defence, Abuja has commenced the recovery of many unexploded mortar bombs buried in trenches during the war in Uzuakoli in Bende Local Government area of Abia State in south-eastern Nigeria.

Mr. Bala Yakubu, the leader of the group told journalists on Wednesday in Umuahia, about 650 km from Abuja that the scanning of some selected areas in the country became necessary because Nigeria made use of both conventional and locally made landmines during the civil war.

Yakubu said that 11 selected local government areas suspected to have contained landmines and other explosive remnants of war such as Arochukwu, Ohafia, Bende, Isuikwuato and Umunneochi in the state would be scanned.

He said that the group would scan selected local government areas in Abia Central, but noted that they might not work in Abia South due to the insecurity problem in the area.

“Already, many of the locally made landmines known as ‘Ogbunigwe’ have been recovered in Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Rivers and Enugu states, and we are likely to find a good number of them in Abia state,” Yakubu said.

He said that the landmines had the potential to continue to kill civilians after conflicts.

Yakubu pointed out that landmines buried in the ground could last as long as 200 years waiting patiently to be detonated accidentally by innocent people for it to cause havoc.

“So far, we have recovered over 6,500 landmines, unexploded ordinances and other explosive remnants of war in the war affected states of the country, majority of it had been destroyed in Enugu, Owerri, Port Harcourt and Markudi,” he said.

He said that the De-miners were charged with the responsibility of enumerating landmine victims for possible compensation by the United Nations.

The group leader urged landmine victims who had visible physical injuries and disabilities to report to their local government areas.

According to him, a group known as De-miners Charity Foundation has already procured scooters, clutches, wheelchairs and artificial limbs for some of the victims already enumerated in Rivers and Akwa Ibom states.

Nigeria is a signatory to the Ottawa Convention, which placed total ban on the use of landmines in wars and that the United Nations required all member states to destroy all landmines buried in the ground in all states that had fought wars.

At the end of the recoveries, there will be a blast-off and stockpile destruction ceremony in Umuahia, which would be witnessed by Governor Theodore Orji of Abia State and the United Nations representatives.
http://ngnewstoday..com/