PUNCH
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has confirmed that he has been receiving life-threatening messages over his comment on banditry associated with illegal mining in Nigeria.
He confirmed this during a visit to the explosion site in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Monday.
The explosion rocked Adeyi Avenue, Bodija, Ibadan last Tuesday, in which five were confirmed dead, 77 sustained varying degrees of injuries, and 58 houses damaged.
Alake said since he commented on the involvement of powerful and highly placed Nigerians in illegal mining at the National Assembly, he has been receiving life-threatening messages.
The minister said, “If you follow my budget defence at the House of Representatives or Senate, I did say categorically to the whole world that powerful Nigerians are behind the banditry associated with illegal miners in this country.
” I said it openly, of course, I received threats, but we are undaunted because these things have to be said, and in any case, I wasn’t saying anything new, most people knew it.
“Many people have been saying it, I only gave it an official stamp, based on intelligence reports. So, there is a lot of connivance along and among the strata of the society both high, medium and low.
“It is not an exclusive preserve of just a high hut. It cuts across the strata of the society. So, this is a societal problem, and I did say at that meeting at the budgetary defence that we were employing both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies and tactics to combine all of these. The details I won’t be able to reveal publicly now because that will also be un-strategic.”
He, however, said the Federal Government was working in concert with all the critical stakeholders at the state, local government and host communities to bring to an end the activities of the illegal miners.
Alake said the involvement of the host communities became imperative…
