The Kogi State government has attributed more than 80 per cent of criminal activities in the state to mining warning that illegal miners armed with dangerous weapons are contributing to insecurity.
The Commissioner for Information Kingsley Fanwo stated this yesterday on national television.
Fanwo said there was a strong connection between mining and banditry noting that many areas experiencing heightened criminality also had significant mining.
‘There is a very strong link between banditry and mining in Kogi State. Most of those areas where you are having a lot of criminality right now are places where we are having a lot of mining activities going on’ he said.
He however clarified that mining was not the sole cause of criminality in the state but maintained that it was a major contributing factor.
‘We are not saying entirely that criminality is being fuelled by mining but we are saying that more than 80 per cent of the criminality that you are witnessing in Kogi State right now is being fuelled by mining activities’ he added.
The commissioner said security operatives had recently arrested more than 30 suspected illegal miners allegedly found with dangerous weapons including AK-47 rifles.
‘Recently more than 30 of them have been arrested and they were arrested with dangerous weapons. What do you need an AK-47 for when you are mining? So a lot of these illegal miners are the ones fuelling insecurity in the state’ Fanwo said.
He defended the joint security operations against suspected criminals insisting that anyone involved in criminal activities must be treated accordingly regardless of whether the person was a miner.
Fanwo also said joint security forces had killed more than six terrorist camps adding that many of those killed were Nigerians.
He said the state government was strengthening surveillance and deploying forest guards to tackle criminal activities particularly in remote areas.
According to him more than 500 forest guards have been deployed to monitor the forests and support security agencies.
‘We need to man the forest we need to improve on surveillance and also we need to engage the locals in intelligence gathering and then have proper channels to put that intelligence to use’ he said.
Fanwo added that the state was collaborating with neighbouring states to prevent cross-border criminality and strengthen the fight against banditry.
He however maintained that residents were not apprehensive about the security situation noting that the state House of Assembly had signed on to the state policing bill.
The commissioner said Governor Usman Ododo supported efforts aimed at improving security and making Nigeria safer.