ROBBERY, BANDITRY, AND ILLICIT MINING ARE THE FAULT OF POWERFUL NIGERIANS — ALAKE

Strong Nigerians who fund illicit mining are also funding banditry and kidnappings in the nation, according to Minister of Solid Minerals Development Dele Alake.

This was Alake’s statement at his December 12 appearance in Abuja before the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals about the defense of the 2024 budget.

As to his statement, “We have discovered a pernicious fact: many of the crimes, theft, and insecurity that we associate with this industry are actually funded by illegal miners.”

These miners are not your typical artisans. They are not the ones who harvest gold from the earth. These are strong, influential people in our nation who are natives of Nigeria. They are not outsiders. Indeed, immigrants can manifest as symptoms, but they are not the illness.

The people driving those foreigners you see on the streets are Nigerians. We are locating them and using a variety of kinetic and non-kinetic tactics.”