Oshiomhole accuses retired military Generals of sponsoring illegal mining

…asks Tinubu to muster political will to unleash security agents on cabals
…as Senate Committee recommends N539bn capital budget for Solid Mineral ministry

By Tunde Opalana

The Senator representing Edo North senatorial district, Adams Oshiomhole on Friday categorically fingered retired military general as culprits behind illegal solid mineral mining in the country.

The former governor of Edo State lamented that the federal government still scratch on the surface the endemic criminal activities of illegal mineral.mining while treating perpetrators with kid gloves.

He expressed worries that past administrative stations gave failed to deploy enough military action against illegal mining of solid minerals in the northern parts of the country the way maximum force was taken against illegal oil bunkering and refining in the oil rich Niger Delta region.

Oshiomhole expressed these ill feelings on Friday during the submission of report of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development to the panel constituted by the Senate Appropriation Committee.

The former labour leader who is a member of the Appropriation Committee 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.

Calling on President Bola Tinubu to test his political will to save the nation’s economic from capital flight through illegal mining of solid mineral by taking stern measures against perpetrators.

Oshiomhole lamented that efforts at diversifying the country’s economy would remain a mirage if the President refused to be decisive in ending the menace.

He said the country would have been increased it’s current 0.05% to GDP to about 50% to GDP if government had stopped the activities of the illegal miners.

“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.

“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 miner 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, 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 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.

This is just as the Committee in Solid Minerals Development recommended N539 billion as the capital budget for the solid minerals development’s ministry in the 2025 Appropriation Bill.

READ ALSO: Food prices skyrocket by 97% in one year, south-east…

Committee chairman, Senator Sampson Ekong said the 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.

He said even when the ministry had an insignificant allocation last year, it raked in a total of N37bn as revenue.

Senator Tahir Monguno holding forth the the Committee Chairman, Olamilekan Adeola said the committee members had unanimously agree to drastically increase the budget of the ministry.

He said, “It was agreed by everyone in the joint committee that the appropriations be rejected and reviewed upwards as well.

“So we held a number of meetings with the Minister for Budget and I think there were assurances that given the critical needs of the solid minerals, there would be an improvement if more money was channelled to it.

“This is given the fact that from the little vote the ministry had last year, they were able to ramp up revenue for the country to about $37 billion.

“When we met again with the Minister of Budget and other stakeholders, it was canvassed that the appropriations be reviewed to N539 billion for capital expenditure. This is even paltry compared to what other economies are injecting to drive the sector.”