Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has alleged that powerful Nigerians involved in illegal mining are the sponsors of banditry and terrorism in the country.
Alake, who made this revelation at a budget defence meeting with the House Committee on Solid Minerals, informed the committee that a lot of banditry and terrorism are sponsored by illegal miners, saying they are not people who pick gold on the ground but powerful individuals in the country.
The Minister stated that those powerful people behind terrorists are now being identified by the ministry with both kinetic and non-kinetic means through the cooperation of the petty illegal miners.
“One discovery that we have made is that a lot of these insecurities and banditry associated with this sector are sponsored by illegal miners,” he said.
“These are not your artisan miners. They are not the people who pick gold on the ground. These are heavy and powerful individuals in our country. They are Nigerians and not foreigners.”
Alake also said that for mining to generate the requisite revenue, there’s a need to have a formal structure that the multinational could deal with, just like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd.
The Minister, however, said that the approach of the solid ministry under his leadership would be different from NNPCL, adding that the structure being proposed for Nigeria Mining Cooperation would be primarily private sector-driven.
He added that “Nigeria will also have its equity, adding that this would mean that no government after could destabilize the structure.
Alake stated that the conservative amount of minerals deposited in the country is over 700 billion dollars, urging the Chairman of the committee to support the process to change mining in the country.
He also said that the host communities where mining activities take place across the country would be engaged to forestall the breakdown of laws and orders.
The Ministerudrayed the committee to consider the amount budgeted for the ministry in the 2024 budget proposal.
“If we are given that amount of money, I can tell you that what the ministry will contribute will outweigh other ministries, including what we are deriving from oil.
“We can return trillions to the coffers of this country as revenue if we are given such a budget as proposed,” he said.