The chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior, Adams Oshiomhole, has reiterated his claim that some retired military generals, in collaboration with foreign entities, are engaged in the illegal extraction of Nigeria’s solid minerals.
Speaking on Arise TV’s Prime Time Show on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, Oshiomhole clarified that his initial statement did not implicate all retired generals but rather a specific group involved in illicit mining activities.
“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 stated.
The senator disclosed that his assertion was based on information provided by a retired general who had firsthand knowledge of the illicit operations. According to Oshiomhole, this retired officer reported witnessing foreign nationals extracting Nigeria’s solid minerals with the assistance of some retired military officers.
In response, Oshiomhole requested the retired general to compile a detailed report outlining his findings, which he subsequently 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,” Oshiomhole recalled.
The former Edo State governor insisted that illegal mining activities of such scale could not occur without the knowledge or involvement of influential figures.
“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 asserted.
Oshiomhole, however, acknowledged that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has taken steps to address the issue, citing the recent establishment of a special task force to monitor and secure Nigeria’s mining sites.
