Illegal Mining Sites- Defence Chief and Police IG Refute Claims

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, and the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, vehemently denied on Thursday any involvement of the Armed Forces and Police in protecting illegal mining operations and miners in the nation.

The security chiefs passionately addressed the House of Representatives Committee on Mineral Resources, led by the determined Honorable Jonathan Gaza, during an urgent hearing with stakeholders to confront the rampant illegal mining crisis in Abuja.

Upon being confronted by the Committee Chairman with damning reports that members of the Armed Forces and the police were allegedly providing security for illegal miners, the Chief of Defence Staff, represented by the Director of Operations at Defence Headquarters, vehemently denied the accusations.

Addressing the assembly, Air Vice Marshal Nnaemeka Ilo passionately asserted that their protection is extended only to legitimate requests from lawful miners operating in conflict-ridden areas.

He declared with unwavering resolve that the Nigerian Armed Forces are fully committed to providing all necessary support to eradicate the scourge of illegal mining.

His words, “It is not our primary duty but part of our responsibility as per the constitution is that whenever the civil authority task us to do something, we have no obligation than to do that.

“So the Armed Forces to convey here that we are ready to support all the agencies involved in stopping illegal mining including the civil defence, police and the Ministry and so on.

“Now to the question that you asked if the military is protecting any minefield or illegal miners. Most of the time, you find out that from reports reaching us from reliable sources that the military and police providing protection for illegal miners.

“I want to state categorically clearly that is a fallacy. It is not true. If there are any such allegations, please we would want to know which of the mines or who brought the allegations so that we can take it up from there. If there is any such allegation, we want to know who brought that up, but as it is that is a pure lie, sir.

“Legitimate requests are made for the military to give protection to legitimate miners that licence have been issued to in conflict inflicted areas. Once we get such requests what we normally do is we would write to the Ministry of Mines.

“In fact, we direct them to their letter to the Ministry of Mines. So if the Ministry of Mines requests us because of the nature of the environment, because of the conflict, we do sometimes give protection to those people licensed by the government to carry out mining activities from the Ministry of Mines based on requests from the Ministry.”

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Moreover, the Inspector General of Police, through his representative Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Ademola Hamzat, declared passionately that no honorable institution funded by the people would ever act against their desires and aspirations.

He said, “The police, yes, we give guards to some individuals, who we can establish are under serious threat, especially in terrorism-inflicted areas. But from my own office, there is nothing to show that we protect any illegal mining site. We don’t do that.

“We have a procedure to even grant whoever we are going to guard. The procedure should be we should know what you do for a living first and you must be able to establish to us what the reasons are the reasons you want personal guard, because the police is supposed to provide general service to the people.

“So if the people who actually give this, which is coordinated by the Inspector General of Police himself, are convinced that you are supposed to be given one or two guards for personal protection, they would grant. But none from my investigation that we have any mine that we so protect.”

Source: Vanguard