…Charges Tinubu To Involve Troops
The Senate on Friday accused some unnamed retired Army Generals of being behind illegal mining of Nigeria’s solid mineral resources in many parts of the country.
The senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole leveled the allegation during the submission of a report by the Senate committee on Solid Minerals to the Senate committee on Appropriation.
Oshiomhole said the country’s efforts at economic diversification would achieve very little if the activities of the errant retired Generals are not curtailed.
Oshiomhole, who is the Senate committee chairman on Interior, charged President Bola Tinubu to rise to the challenge of protecting the nation’s solid minerals by deploying troops of the Nigerian Army to fight the menace.
According to him, if the government could deploy armed forces personnel to tackle illegal bunkering and crude oil theft in the Niger Delta region, the same approach should be adopted where the country’s solid minerals are being stolen.
Oshiomhole argued that there would be appreciable increase in Nigeria’s GDP if the federal government could tackle the illegal miners.
He 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 illegal pumping of oil. We should also deploy JTFs, comprising the Army, Police, Air force, against them. The ongoing illegal mining activities across the country are being carried out by retired Generals and we know them.
“Yes, we know them. Nobody in Africa doesn’t 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 exactly the same way the military is doing in the 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. I took this letter to the former president, when I was the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress and I said, call the General to give you more briefing.
“In fact, what is happening or what is supposed to really 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 who deployed a secure territory. The weaponry was made to protect the Chinese and other foreigners and that’s why they actually are going to carry out the mining.
“So, the retired military officers, 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.
“Even as we are talking now, there are still those illegal miners and those guys are getting richer when they get poorer.
“Who can afford to buy the chopper, to land in an illegal mining site, cart away gold, and immediately, they are on the way to the airport, to take them out of the country. This is happening.
“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.
Other senators agreed with the submissions of Oshiomhole and urged the various security agencies to take up the challenge because the shortest pathway for people in Nigeria is through diversification.
Urging President Tinubu to ensure adequate funding of the solid mineral sector, the Senate committee on Solid Minerals increased the ministry’s 2025 proposed budget from N9 billion to N539 billion. The increase was reflected in a report the chairman of the committee, Senator Sampson Ekong submitted to the Appropriation committee.
Justifying the increase, Senator Ekong said the N9 billion initially proposed for the ministry was grossly inadequate given the need for the government to open up the solid mineral sector for economic diversification. According to him, the ministry deserved the increase because it was able to rake in N37 billion revenue in 2024 despite its meagre budget.
His position was echoed by Oshiomhole who, however, cautioned that until the activities of illegal miners are checked, no amount of funding can achieve any meaningful results in the mining sector.
Senate Accuses Retired Army Generals of Illegal Mining is first published on The Whistler Newspaper
Source: The Whistler
