Govt Reveals Cause Of Criminal Activities In Kogi

The Kogi State Government has linked more than 80 per cent of crimes recorded in the state to mining activities, noting that some illegal miners carry dangerous weapons, including AK-47 rifles, to mining sites.

Naija News reports that the Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, made the claim on Monday while speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

Fanwo said areas with high levels of criminal activity in the state were often places where mining activities were taking place.

“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.

The commissioner, however, clarified that the government was not blaming mining for all criminal activities in the state.

“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,” Fanwo added.

Fanwo said security operatives recently arrested more than 30 suspected illegal miners who were found with dangerous weapons.

He questioned why people engaged in mining would need to carry AK-47 rifles, arguing that some illegal miners were contributing to 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 said.

The commissioner added that joint security forces had continued operations to tackle the problem.

When asked whether the operations were too harsh on people who might only be involved in illegal mining, Fanwo replied that “a criminal is a criminal”.

The commissioner also disclosed that joint security forces had neutralised more than six terrorist camps in the state.

He said many of the terrorists killed during the operations were Nigerians.

According to Fanwo, the government is improving surveillance and working with local communities to strengthen security.

He said more than 500 trained forest guards had been deployed to monitor forests and help prevent criminal groups from using them as hideouts.

“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,” he 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.”

Fanwo said the state was also working with neighbouring states to prevent criminals from crossing state borders to escape security operations.

Despite the security challenges, Fanwo said residents of Kogi were not apprehensive about the situation.

He also disclosed that the Kogi State House of Assembly had signed up for the state policing bill, adding that Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo supported efforts to improve security across Nigeria.