Former Edo state governor and Chairman, Senate Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole has raised the alarm that some unnamed retired military generals were behind the numerous illegal mining activities nationwide.
Speaking yesterday in Abuja when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Senator Sampson Ekong, PDP, Akwa-Ibom South submitted his report before the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Oshiomhole said that the country’s efforts at diversifying its economy will not be achieved if President Bola Tinubu’s administration fails to address what he described as embarrassing cases of illegal mining in the country.
Oshiomhole, who is a member of Senator Olamilekan Adeola, led the Committee on Appropriations Committee warned that no amount of funds appropriated to the solid minerals sub-sector would achieve any meaningful results if the issue of illegal miners were not effectively tackled.
Oshiomhole said, “Whereas the federal government is ruthless with people who are doing illegal oil bunkering by deploying the Joint Military Task Force to deal with them, when it comes to illegal mining of solid minerals, the federal government changes. It’s like using different standards and I am very angry about that.
“If we have to fight this menace, we need to deploy the Army even to kill anyone who is involved in the illegal pumping of oil. We should also deploy JTFs, comprising the Army, Police, Air Force, against them. The ongoing illegal mining across the country are being carried out by retired generals and we know them.
“Yes, we know them. I did a letter to former President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter when he was in office. This is because a team that I sent to go and conduct the primary somewhere, reported back to me, the challenge of conducting primary elections in Zamfara because of the illegal miners. The team told me that those illegal miners procure arms the same way the military is doing in South Sudan. They give them arms. They use choppers to come and cart away the gold and they take them out of this country and make billions of U.S. dollars.
“Unfortunately, the federal government is not doing what it should be doing. When I was the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, I took this letter to the former president and said, call the generals to give you more briefing. What was happening or what was supposed to happen in that part of the country was exactly what the general told me was going to happen.
“These guys have been weaponised by the illegal big men. The weaponry was made to protect the Chinese and other foreigners and that’s why they are going to carry out the mining. So, retired military officers, and army officers, are involved in it. The day we can’t tell the truth, this country cannot flourish.
That is what is going on with the mining sub-sector. It is not that we don’t know where it is. We have a whole survey of where we can find them across the length and breadth of Nigeria.
“My position is that we shouldn’t be lamenting. We should fix the problem. We should tell the executive, you must deploy exactly the same force that you deployed against illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta. That same force should be deployed to deal with criminals who have money. When I say criminal, it can be a retired general, it can be a retired permanent secretary, it can be a retired trade unionist or a retired labour leader.”
