Oshiomhole: No Foreigner Can Steal Nigeria’s Solid Minerals Resources without Local Connivance

•Urges govt to deploy same force used in N’Delta to fight illegal mining

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Former All Progressives Congress (APC) national Chairman, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday doubled down on his accusation of the connivance of certain influential elements in Nigeria with foreigners to illegally exploit the country’s solid mineral resources.

Speaking on Arise Television last night, the former Governor of Edo state, who clarified that he did not accuse all retired generals of joining hands with foreign forces to steal Nigeria’s resources, argued that some  countries rely exclusively on solid minerals to survive.

“ 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. So, it may be correct to say the government is not able to harvest what accrues from solid mineral exploration and that the illegality is being done and people know who are behind it,” he pointed out.

But he argued that at no time did he say that all retired generals, among whom he has many friends and never  had any political exposure, are involved in a particular crime.

“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 maintained.

Repeating the story of a retired general who relayed how Nigeria’s solid minerals are stolen and how he narrated the matter to former President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole stated that there’s no way he would hear that kind of sordid tale and not tell the president at the time, especially as the chair of the ruling party.

“There is no way I can comprehend this story because I have no military training or secret training. And I pleaded with him to do a summary, not more than two, maximum 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 clearer and I advised him to put his phone number so that the president can call him if he so wished and he can 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 a 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, so, and I said, sir, go through it, it is self-explanatory. My advice, I can only advice the president. My advice is that you can call him and he can give you more graphic details of what he saw and what he know and his fears about what will happen if this is not nipped in the bud,” he noted.

According to the former labour leader, there’s no way smuggling of that multitude takes place without anybody seeing it.

“So you can’t have that scale of illegal activity without men and women in power and resources,” he reiterated.

Stressing that it cannot be a civilian chopper carrying arms, dropping them where there is gold, he argued that  some retired generals and powerful other non-generals were fully involved in the illegal trade.

Highlighting that government is a continuum, Oshiomhole pointed out that the Bola Tinubu government is currently tackling the problem, especially with the recent setting up of marshals to police Nigeria’s mining sites.

“We can’t be here, and people are carting away our natural resources…I would like to see the government deploy the same amount of force in protecting our solid minerals, and dealing with those who are involved in illegal mining, just like illegal bunkering,” he argued.

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