BY GLORIA AKUDORO
The Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Dele Alake on Thursday disclosed that over 90 mining sites have been recovered from illegal miners across the country.
Alake also disclosed that not more than 300 illegal miners had been arrested, with 50 of them being prosecuted, and over 20 illegal miners had been convicted since the inception of the present administration
Alake made this known in Akure on Thursday at the ongoing South-West stakeholders’ dialogue organised by Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba social-cultural group; DAWN Commission; and South-West governors, themed “Strengthening Democracy Through Dialogue: Assessing Progress and Charting the Future”.
The minister attributed these successes to the collaborative effort of the ministry and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) that led to the establishment of Mining Marshals with the purpose of securing mining sites in Nigeria.
He further stated that in 2024, the Federal Government raked in N28 billion as revenue from the ministry, noting that the ministry over-performed on its budgetary target for the year.
Alake said that the current administration’s policy on mining was that the mined minerals should not be exported raw except when undergoing a local process in giving it a value chain.
He therefore cautioned traditional rulers not to connive with illegal miners irrespective of financial inducements, saying the future of the country must not be traded.
Meanwhile, in January 2025, Edo North Senator, Sen. Adams Oshiomhole, during a plenary allegedly accused retired military officers of masterminding illegal mining activities across the country.
The former Edo State Governor who spoke when the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Sen. Ekong Samson, submitted the report of his committee’s budget defence to the Committee on Appropriations, said, “The ongoing illegal mining activities across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. Yes, we know them.”
Mr. Oshiomhole recalled that during his tenure as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), he penned a letter to former President Muhammadu Buhari to apprise him of the prevailing circumstances.
He recounted how a team he dispatched to oversee the APC primaries in Zamfara State faced formidable security challenges, owing to the presence of heavily armed illegal miners.
“I wrote 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,” he said.
The senator remarked that the operations of illegal miners bear a striking resemblance to those of militias in conflict regions such as South Sudan, utilizing sophisticated weaponry and aviation support to extract and smuggle minerals out of Nigeria.
“The team told me that those illegal miners procure arms exactly the same way the military is doing in 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,” he added.
He expressed apprehension that, despite the government’s awareness of these operations, scant measures have been taken to curtail the illicit mining activities.
“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 generals to give you more briefing.
“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,” he stated.
Mr Oshiomhole urged the federal government to deploy the same military force used against illegal oil bunkering in the Niger Delta region to tackle illegal mining in other affected areas.
“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.
Previously, Mr. Samson announced that the committee had proposed an allocation of N539 billion to the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in the 2025 budget.