Allegation against unnamed military generals as forces behind illegal mining across the country was leveled in the Senate on Friday by its Chairman, Committee on Interior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC Edo North).
Senato Oshiomhole, made the allegation when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Senator Sampson Ekong, submitted his report before the Senate Committee on Appropriation.
Oshiomhole lamented that the country’s efforts at diversifying its economy would remain a mirage if President Bola Tinubu’s administration refused to address the embarrassing cases of illegal mining in the country.
This is just as Ekong said his committee has recommended N539 billion as the capital budget for the solid minerals development’s ministry in the 2025 Appropriation Bill.
Ekong said the executive proposed N9bn as the capital vote for the ministry for this fiscal year, but that his panel believed that the amount was grossly inadequate to tap the available potential in the sub-sector.
Oshiomhole, who is a member of the Appropriation panel said no amount of funds appropriated to the solid minerals sub-sector would achieve any meaningful results of the issue of illegal miners were not effectively tackled.
He suggested that the federal government should start dealing with illegal miners like the way it was currently attacking those involved in illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region.
“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 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 and when I was the National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress and I said, call the general to give you more briefing which however did not yield the desired results .
“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”, he said .
The panel 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.