A recent report by Daily Trust media has highlighted the link between illegal mining and the worsening case of banditry in the North West.
Banditry has been the worst criminality bedeviling states in the North West and North Central regions of Nigeria. Yet, not many of those with the mandate to combat the bandits or the authority to interface with the security hierarchy are aware of the relationship between banditry and illegal mining.
Niger and Zamfara are among the few states in the North West and North Central regions endowed with huge mineral deposits, which among others include talc, gold, ball clays, silica, sand, marble, copper, iron, feldspar, lead, kaolin, casserole, columbine, mica, quartzite, and limestone.
In several communities, mining is the primary occupation ofevery household. These small-time miners, who hardly ever act as brokers for the larger gold dealers, transport their gold and other minerals to major cities in the South like Port-Harcourt, Lagos, and occasionally even Ghana and the Benin Republic, where they are sold to major buyers. Sometimes too, dealers visit these states to buy gold and other minerals directly from the local miners.
According to a recent investigative article by the Daily Trust, local mining persisted for a long time in these two states without any security implications. During that time, criminals were involved in cattle rustling and kidnapping. Over time, the bandits began employing informants from the community to find out who was holding gold or any other valuable resource in the area. This was done to kidnap the person’s relatives. As soon as the bandits realised how much money mining might bring in, they became drawn to it.
The leaders of the bandits currently own or control the majority of the mining sites in the two states of Zamfara and Niger. It is now thought that Kachalla Halilu, one of the infamous bandit leaders, is more interested in mining than banditry. He is said to have gotten gold valued at N150 million in Kanye village, Zamfara State. Dozens of local miners are currently alleged to be working for him at various mining sites across the state.
Daily Trust ends the report with a call to action for the Federal Government to put an end to illegal mining activities in the region to end banditry.
