•Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo and Kogi map
The Kogi State government says there is a strong link between banditry and mining in the state, adding that over 80 per cent of the crimes witnessed in the North-Central state are fuelled by mining activities.
“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,” Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, said on Channels Television today.
“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.
The commissioner noted that a lot of illegal miners go to mining sites with dangerous weapons, including AK-47s, fuelling insecurity in the state.
“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 doing mining? So, a lot of these illegal miners are the ones fuelling insecurity in the state,” he added.
Fanwo disclosed that the joint security forces have been carrying out operations in the state to deal with the situation.
Asked whether such operations are not too much for people who could just be illegal miners, he said a “criminal is a criminal”.
Fanwo also said that more than six camps of terrorists were neutralised by joint security forces, adding that many of the terrorists neutralised were Nigerians.
“But what we are trying to do is to improve our surveillance, and also the approval of the recruitment and training of forest guards by Mr. President has also helped us,” the commissioner said.
“We have already deployed over 500 forest guards that have been trained to man the forests; 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 there is also inter-state collaboration to forestall cross-border criminality and make the fight against banditry more effective.
Fanwo, however, said residents of the state are not apprehensive.
Kogi State House of Assembly has signed up for the state policing bill, adding that the state governor supports efforts to make Nigeria safer.
