1 day Ago By Chukwu David
The Senate, yesterday alleged that some un- named retired military generals were responsible for the numerous illegal mining activities across the country. Making the allegation was the Chairman of the Senate Committee on In- terior, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Min- erals Development, Senator Sampson Ekong, submitted his report before the Senate Committee on Appropriations on Friday. While making his con- tributions during the cer- emony, Oshiomhole noted that the efforts of the gov- ernment to diversify the economy would remain a mirage if President Bola Tinubu led administration failed to address the em- barrassing cases of illegal mining in the country.
This is just as Ekong stated that his committee had recommended N539 billion as the capital bud- get for the Solid Minerals Development Ministry in the 2025 Appropriation Bill. Ekong added that the executive proposed N9 bil- lion as the capital vote for the ministry for this fiscal year, but that his panel be- lieved that the amount was grossly inadequate to tap into the available potential in the sub-sector. He said that even when the ministry had an insig- nificant allocation last year, it raked in a total of N37bn as revenue.
Oshiomhole, who is also a member of the Ap- propriations Committee said no amount of funds appropriated to the solid mineral sub-sector would achieve any meaningful re- sults, if the issue of illegal miners were not effectively addressed, suggesting 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. He said the country would have increased its current 0.05 per cent to GDP to about 50 per cent to GDP if the government had stopped the activities of the illegal miners.
He said, “Whereas the Federal Government is ruthless with people who are doing illegal oil bun- kering 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 Muham- madu Buhari on the matter when he was in office. This is because a team that I sent to go and conduct the pri- mary somewhere, reported back to me, the challenge of conducting primary elec- tions in Zamfara because of the illegal miners.
“The team told me that those illegal miners pro- cure 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 coun- try 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 Chair- man of the All Progressive Congress and I said, call the general to give you more briefing. “In fact, what is happen- ing 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 weap- onry was made to protect the Chinese and other for- eigners 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, they 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 immedi- ately, 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 prob- lem. We should tell the executive, you must de- ploy 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 mon- ey. 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. The Committee agreed with the submissions of Oshiomhole and urged the various security agent cies to take up the challenge because the shortest path- way for people in Nigeria is through diversification.
The Chairman of the Committee, said that members had unanimous- ly agreed to drastically increase the budget of the ministry, saying, “When we met again with the Minister of Budget and other stake- holders, it was canvassed that the appropriations be reviewed to N539 billion for capital expenditure. This is even paltry com- pared to what other econ- omies are injecting to drive the sector.” Meanwhile, the Chair- man of the Senate Com- mittee on the Army, Sen- ator Abdulaziz Yar’adua, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Ap- propriations to present his panel’s report, argued that the military and security institutions in the country should be removed from the envelope budgeting system.
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