How Government Appointees Fuel Activities of Illegal Miners in Zamfara

By Mike Odeh James

In addition to Maryam Musa’s report, this reporter can reveal that despite the efforts of the Federal and State Governments to curb the activities of men and women who engage in mining activities without permit from the relevant authorities, DESERT HERALD has uncovered an organized group of individuals who actually helps fuel the activities of illegal mining in Zamfara State.

The popular belief, however, is that they cannot succeed in illegal mining without the support and collaboration of those in government particularly the state Governor.

According to DESERT HERALD findings, the Sole Administrator of Talatan Marafa, Alhaji Abubakar Mai Naira and some other highly placed officials in the Service of Zamfara State Government have been actively involved in subverting the Federal Government’s ban on mining activities in Zamfara by recruiting and deploying illegal miners into gold mines for their nefarious acts.

According to our sources, the Sole Administrator used the opportunity of the lull in mining occasioned by the ban to deploy illegal miners, excavators to gold mines that hitherto belong to some entrepreneurs in the state to commence mining operations.

Following a tipoff, DESERT HERALD reporters decided to visit one of the mine fields allegedly seized by Alhaji Mai Naira.

The Mine field, which is located in Sauna Village in Talata Mafara Local Government Area of the state, was heavily guarded by mobile policemen who were also armed, and an excavator was seen in operation.

However, the policemen would not allow anyone to come very close to the field let alone entertain any question or take photographs of the field. Those at the site confided in this reporter that Governor Matawalle is fully aware of the activities of Alhaji Mai Naira.

As of the time DESERT HERALD visited the site, no activity was going on, however, villagers who are living close to the field confirmed that mining activities take place within the hours of 8pm to 4am every day.

According to Mallam Dalhatu Usman, “every day around at 8 o’clock in the evening to 4 ‘o’clock in the morning heavy activities and sounds are heard coming from the minefield.

“We can see people moving around, digging, talking and at times shouting”, he added.

Abdullahi Osman of the same community also added that every night heavy duty trucks go in and out of the Sauna mining site.

When asked, what is taking place inside the barbed wired field? Most of the villagers alleged that “Ana satan mana zinari” roughly translates into “they are mining and stealing our gold illegally”.

Though DESERT HERALD could not confirm whether the activities taking place there are mining but it is evident that the excavator in the field is used for mining. Further interaction with the villagers confirmed the claim that mining is indeed taking place there.

DESERT HERALD then contacted one Mr. Sam who is the Federal Mines Officer in Zamfara State but he declined to comment, saying that we should contact the Commissioner of Police in the State. He, however, confirmed to this reporter that there was indeed a petition that accused Alhaji Mai Naira of illegal digging for gold in Sauna.

While the petition has expectedly not been entertained, Mai Naira remains in his position despite credible allegations against him which suggest that there is indeed government connivance and that he would have been sacked long ago if he is acting on his own.

After repeated attempts, this reporter finally spoke to Alhaji Shamsudeen Sani Dahiru who is the General Manager of Metro Bright General Merchants Limited.

Alhaji Dahiru alleged that the Sauna mining site belongs to his company – Metro Bright General Merchants Ltd and he went further to present photocopies of the following;

Exploration License issued by Nigeria Mining Cadaster Office, Abuja; Notification of Grants For Application of No.24813 EL; Revenue Collectors Receipts dated 17 February, 2020 with full payments made; And a letter of mobilisation to the Sauna mining site.

He went further to explain that immediately after the issuance of the letter of mobilization, the Federal Government placed a ban on mining activities in the state, that was in 2019 and that since that time he was prevented from going there while illegal activities have not stopped there.

He added that he started getting reports of illegal mining activities in Sauna field and when he got to the site, he discovered that it was fenced and security forces deployed to the area. As the rightful owner, he was never contacted.

“On further enquires, I was told that the Sole Administrator of Talata Marafa Local Government Area of the state had taken over the site and has even been digging gold”, Dahiru revealed.

Certainly, the Sole Administrator cannot unilaterally go there without the support from the above. That support according to insiders came from Governor Matawalle through his millionaire brother, Abubakar Mohammed Maradun aka Skido.

The GM of Metro Bright Merchant Limited explained further that he immediately contacted the Commandant of National Security and Civil Defence Corp, NSCDC and told him about his findings.

In his words, “after my meeting with the NSCDC boss, I was asked to write a petition which I did.

“The NSCDC then asked that i should get their operatives mobilized to the site to reclaim my land.

“I was surprised to observe that the NSCDC which showed willingness to help later became reluctant to go and see what my complaints were all about.

The entrepreneur also spoke of the frustrations he had from the police and the State Security Services, SSS. The situation suggests that there is indeed big conspiracy with certain people at the highest level of government.

The Chairman of Talatan Mafara may just be a front, he is being used. They also said that it is impossible that such situation, the mining that is taking place illegally is not known by the governor.

The businessman showed DESERT HERALD correspondents, photocopies of petition letters written by Metro Bright Merchant Ltd to all the security agencies in the state which were acknowledged but nothing was done to bring the culprits to book.

There were strong feelers from those contacted by this reporter that the reasons why the security agencies in the state refused to move against the illegal occupation of the Sauna Mining Site is because the Sole Administrator who appropriated the site is connected to top government officials in the state.

Apart from that the name of one Aminu Danmaliki, who is said to be the younger brother of the incumbent Governor Bello Matawalle, is also ringing bell in the chain of illegal mining going on in the state and the current seizure of Sauna Mining site.

Those who made the allegations, also stressed that the Sole Administrator of Talata Marafa is an appointee of the Governor of the state, therefore those at the Government House in Gusau must have idea of what he is doing.

There are also questions that are left hanging such as; who deployed policemen to protect miners in Sauna?

Why is mining ongoing on the site despite the Federal Government’s ban on mining activities?

Who actually gave the approval?

Why are security operatives reluctant to move against the miners in Sauna Site when it was brought to their notices via Dahiru Sani’s petition?

In order to get answers, DESERT HERALD called a media aide to the Governor, Idris Yusuf, but he rejected the calls. A text message was sent to his phone but it went not replied. Evidence of that is available with this paper.

DESERT HERALD reporters also tried to contact the Sole Administrator of Talata Marafa to get his own side of the story but all to no avail.

Before filing this report, the Secretary to the State Government was also contacted but all the enquiries went unanswered.

In the meantime, Alhaji Shamsudeen Dahiru Sani’s only appeal is that the Governor should intervene in the situation and help to recover his site if at all he is also not a beneficiary of the current illegal mining.

Furthermore, the inhabitants of Sauna village are also calling on both the state and federal governments to help stop the activities of illegal miners in their area as the miners’ actions are threatening the security of the community.

They said if nothing is done by the relevant authorities, they will be forced to take any legitimate action to protect themselves and their naturally endowed resources. They vowed that they will no longer continue to watch the exploitation of their resources while government has abandoned them to continue to live in squalor.

(DESERT HERALD can confirm that when the authorities learnt about our interview with Shamsudeen Sani Dahiru, the owner of the company in dispute he was reportedly summoned by the government and was settled to avoid further embarrassment. But all the content of the quoted interview was recorded and preserved by this paper)
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Watch out for the second part of this revealing story next week