BY OUR CORRESPONDENT – Against the backdrop of allegations that they are providing protecting illegal miners and mining sites in the country, two security chiefs have described the claims as pure fallacy and should not be believed
This assurance to Nigerians is coming from the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun.
Both made the submissions while responding to a query by the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Mineral Resources alleging that the members of the Nigerian Armed Forces and the police were providing security for illegal miners based on reliable intelligence.
Denying that such arrangement does exist at a hearing by the House Committee, chaired by Hon Jonathan Gaza, with stakeholders on illegal mining, General Musa explained that they only provide official protection for legitimate requests made by legitimate miners, who operate in conflict-inflicted areas.
The CDS, who represented by the Director of Operations Defence Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Nnaemeka Ilo, said; “The Armed Forces of Nigeria is ever ready to give all the necessary support needed to stop this illegal mining.
“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.”
Offering further clarification on the issues, the Defence Chief said; “Now to the question if the military is protecting any minefield or illegal miners. Most of the time, you find out that reports reaching us from sources about the military and police providing protection for illegal miners are not credible.
“I want to state categorically clear that is a fallacy. It is not true. If there is any such allegations, please we would want to know which of the mines or who brought the allegations so that we would 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 pure lies sir.”
For the IG, represented by Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG Ademola Hamzat, there is no way any responsible organisation funded by the public would do anything that goes against the wish of the people.
He further 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 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 involves the Police knowing what you do for a living first and you must be able to establish to us what the reasons are that should warrant you seeking personal guards, because the police is supposed to provide general service to the people.”
“So effectively, there are procedural checks within the system to monitor and ensure that Police officers are not wrongly drafted to handle duties that are beyond their constitutional mandate and responsibilities”, the IGP informed the lawmakers.
