Adams Oshiomhole, Senator representing Edo North, says retired army generals are behind illegal mining activities in the country and that former President Muhammadu Buhari was well informed about their nefarious activities.

Mr Oshiomhole made this allegation on Friday before the Senate committee on appropriations when the chairman of the Senate committee on solid minerals development, Senator Sampson Ekong, submitted his 2025 budget report.

“The ongoing illegal mining across the country is being carried out by retired generals, and we know them. Yes, we know them. Nobody in Africa does not know them,” Mr Oshiomhole said, though he did not mention any names.

Mr Oshiomhole, who served as the All Progressives Congress party chairman between 2018 and 2019, said he informed Mr Buhari back then when the activities of illegal miners barred his party members from conducting the party primary election in Zamfara state.

“I did a letter to former President Muhammadu Buhari on the matter when he was in office,” Mr Oshiomhole said. “This is because a team that I sent to go and conduct the primary somewhere reported back to me the challenge of conducting primary elections in Zamfara because of the illegal miners.”

He added, “If we have to fight this menace, we need to deploy the Army, even to kill anyone who is involved in illegal pumping of oil. We should also deploy JTFs, comprising the Army, Police, Air Force, against them.”

Mr Oshiomhole’s claim provides insight into illegal mining activities in some states in Northern Nigeria and the escalating banditry in the region.

In recent years, Zamfara state, a state rich in gold, has been a hotbed of banditry, which many experts have linked to the operations of illegal miners in the state.