Senator Adams Oshiomhole, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, has reiterated his concerns regarding the involvement of certain NOT all retired military generals in illegal mining activities across Nigeria, as he claims to be wrongly quoted.
“It’s not sensible to say so. That would be a reckless, sweeping generalisation. That is not what I said. I said the problem is that some, and I still believe it to be so; I know it to be so. I said some retired generals are involved. And somehow, we are not deploying the same force as a nation that we deploy to protect our oil in the Niger Delta,” he reiterated.
He asserts that these individuals are collaborating with foreign entities to exploit the nation’s solid mineral resources illicitly.
“It is absolutely impossible for anyone, particularly foreigners, far away outside the African continent, coming to Nigeria, locating a site, not being geologists and they go straight to where they can find particular solid minerals, and they start mining it, and they take it away,” Oshiomole added.
Oshiomhole emphasized the sophisticated nature of these operations, highlighting the use of helicopters and advanced technology to extract and transport valuable minerals like gold out of the country. Speaking on Arise TV on Tuesday, the former APC Chairman noted that these activities are reminiscent of the illegal oil bunkering practices previously witnessed in the Niger Delta region.
The senator expressed frustration over the perceived disparity in the government’s approach to combating illegal resource extraction, pointing out that while the federal government has been proactive in deploying the Joint Military Task Force to address oil theft, similar decisive actions are lacking in the solid minerals sector. He therefore called for the deployment of military forces to tackle illegal mining with the same level of intensity.
Reflecting on his tenure as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Oshiomhole revealed that he had previously alerted former President Muhammadu Buhari about the involvement of powerful individuals in illegal mining. He recounted sending a letter urging the former president to summon the implicated generals for a briefing, though this initiative did not yield the desired outcome.
“There is no way I can comprehend this story because I have no military training or secret training. I pleaded with him to do a summary, not more than two, a maximum of three pages, that I will submit as chairman of the ruling party at that time, that l will submit to the president, who incidentally is a retired general before becoming the president of Nigeria. So he will understand the issues more clearly. I advised him to put his phone number so that the president can call him if he so wishes and give him this detailed security dimension. Because he warned me that if that thing is not checked, what is happening in the Northeast will be child’s play. And so I took this letter, as I promised him, because I saw a patriotic officer, though retired, but not tired of his loyalty to Nigeria. And I gave it to the then President Buhari. And I said, sir, go through it; it is self-explanatory. My advice is that you can call him, and he can give you more graphic details of what he saw and what he knows and his fears about what will happen if this is not nipped in the bud,” the concerned Senator narrated.
This is not the first time high-ranking officials have raised alarms about influential figures orchestrating illegal mining. In December 2023, the current Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Alake, during a budget defense session, stated that powerful Nigerians sponsor illegal miners and the associated insecurity in mining areas.
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Oshiomhole’s renewed allegations underscore the ongoing challenges Nigeria faces in safeguarding its mineral wealth from illicit exploitation by well-connected individuals and their foreign partners.
He however acknowledged that the BAT administration is committed to stopping this crime as the police are now being assigned to mount guard at the mining sites.
