Umuahia—Many unexploded mortar bombs buried in trenches during the Nigeria Civil War have been recovered in Uzuakoli, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.

The Humanitarian De-miners from the Ministry of Defence, Abuja, made the recovery.

Mr Bala Yakubu, leader of the group, who made the disclosure in Umuahia yesterday, said 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.

11 local councils to be scanned

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, would be scanned.

He said 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,” Yakubu said.
He said 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 Makurdi,” he said.
He said the de-miners were  charged with the responsibility of enumerating landmine victims for possible compensation by the UN.

Appeals to landmine victims

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 Deminers Charity Foundation has already procured scooters, clutches, wheelchairs and artificial limbs for some of the victims already enumerated in Rivers and Akwa Ibom.

Nigeria is a signatory to Ottawa Convention which placed total ban on the use of landmines in wars and that the United Nations (UN) required all member states to destroy all landmines buried in the ground in all states that had fought wars.
At the end of recoveries, there will be a blast-off and stockpile destruction ceremony in Umuahia, which  would be witnessed by Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia and UN representatives.