In a strong statement made yesterday in Abuja, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, the former governor of Edo State and current Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, has accused retired military generals of being behind the illegal mining operations plaguing Nigeria.
Oshiomhole’s remarks came during a session where Senator Sampson Ekong, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, presented his report before the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
Oshiomhole, a prominent member of the Appropriations Committee led by Senator Olamilekan Adeola, expressed deep concern over the country’s growing illegal mining crisis.
He warned that unless the administration of President Bola Tinubu urgently addresses these unlawful activities, Nigeria’s ambitions to diversify its economy would remain unattainable.
The former Edo governor emphasized that no amount of funding allocated to the solid minerals sector would yield tangible results unless the rampant illegal mining issue was effectively curbed.
Describing the situation as “embarrassing,” Oshiomhole underscored the urgent need for action to protect Nigeria’s natural resources and ensure the sector’s potential is realized for national development.
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.
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“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.”
