Oshiomhole Insists Retired Generals Aiding Foreigners in Illegal Mining

Kehinde Fajobi

Senator Adams Oshiomhole has reinforced his claim that some retired military generals are colluding with foreigners to loot Nigeria’s solid minerals.

Speaking on Arise TV’s Prime Time Show on Tuesday, the Senate Committee on Interior chairman clarified that he was not accusing all retired generals of illegal mining but maintained that some were involved.

“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 said.

Oshiomhole revealed that his claim was based on information from a retired general who witnessed the illegal activities firsthand.

According to him, the retired officer detailed his findings in a report, which Oshiomhole personally submitted to former President Muhammadu Buhari.

“There is no way I can comprehend this story because I have no military training or secret training.

“I pleaded with him to do a summary, not more than two, a maximum of three pages, that I will submit as chairman of the ruling party at that time, that I will submit to the president, who incidentally is a retired general before becoming the president of Nigeria.

“So he will understand the issues more clearly. I advised him to put his phone number so that the president can call him if he so wishes and 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 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, sir, go through it; it is self-explanatory. My advice is that you can call him, and he can give you more graphic details of what he saw and what he knows and his fears about what will happen if this is not nipped in the bud,” he said.

READ ALSO: ‘Retired Generals Behind Illegal Mining, We Know Them’ — Oshiomhole

The senator argued that illegal mining of such scale could not be happening without powerful figures enabling it.

“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,” he said.

However, he noted that President Bola Tinubu’s administration had begun tackling the issue with the introduction of mining marshals to secure Nigeria’s mining sites.

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