Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa has denied that Armed Forces members provide security for illegal mining sites and miners across the country.
Similarly, the inspector-general of police, Kayode Egbetokun, distanced his personnel from the allegation that they gave cover to perpetrators of such crimes.
Both heads of security forces made their positions known at a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Mineral Resources, chaired by Hon Jonathan Gaza, with stakeholders on illegal mining.
They responded to a query by the committee’s chairman that the members of the Armed Forces and the police were providing security for illegal miners based on reliable reports.
But Musa, who was represented by the Director of Operations at Defence Headquarters, Air Vice Marshal Nnaemeka Ilo, said they only protect legitimate requests made by legal miners who operate in conflict-prone areas.
He said the Armed Forces of Nigeria were ever ready to provide the necessary support to stop the illegal mining, adding that
it was not their primary duty, but part of their responsibility as the constitution compels them to carry out directives from the civil authorities.
“So, the Armed Forces convey here that we are ready to support all the agencies involved in stopping illegal mining, including civil defence, police, the ministry, and so on.
“Now to the question you asked if the military is protecting any minefield or illegal miners, most of the time, you find out from reports reaching us from reliable sources that the military and police protect illegal miners.
“I want to state clearly that this is a fallacy. It is not true. If there are any such allegations, please let us know which of the mines or who brought them so we can 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 a pure lie, sir.
“Requests are made for the military to protect legitimate miners whose licences have been issued in conflict-inflicted areas. Once we get such requests, we usually write to the Ministry of Mines.
“In fact, we direct them to their letter to the Ministry of Mines. So, if the Ministry of Mines requests us because of the nature of the environment, because of the conflict, we do sometimes give protection to those licensed by the government to carry out mining activities from the Ministry of Mines based on requests from the Ministry,” he said.
On his part, the IGP, who was represented by the assistant inspector-general of police, Ademola Hamzat, said the police only give guards to some individuals who the force can establish were 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 on who we are going to guard.
“The procedure should be that we should know what you do for a living first, and you must be able to establish to us why you want a personal guard because the police are supposed to provide general service to the people.
“So, if the people who give this, which is coordinated by the IGP himself, are convinced that you are supposed to be given one or two guards for personal protection, they would grant. But none from my investigation have any mine that we so protect.”