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He confirmed this during a visit to the explosion site in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital on Monday.
The explosion rocked Adeyi Avenue, Bodija, Ibadan last
Tuesday, in which five were confirmed dead, 77 sustained varying
degrees of injuries, and 58 houses damaged.
Alake said since he commented on the involvement of powerful and highly placed Nigerians in illegal mining at the National Assembly, he has been receiving life-threatening messages.
The minister said, “If you follow my budget defence at the House of Representatives or Senate, I did say categorically to the whole world that powerful Nigerians are behind the banditry associated with illegal miners in this country.
” I said it openly, of course, I received threats, but we are
undaunted because these things have to be said, and in any case, I
wasn’t saying anything new, most people knew it.
“Many
people have been saying it, I only gave it an official stamp, based on
intelligence reports. So, there is a lot of connivance along and among
the strata of the society both high, medium and low.
“It is not an exclusive preserve of just a high hut. It cuts across
the strata of the society. So, this is a societal problem, and I did say
at that meeting at the budgetary defence that we were employing both
kinetic and non-kinetic strategies and tactics to combine all of these.
The details I won’t be able to reveal publicly now because that will
also be un-strategic.”
He, however, said the Federal Government was working in concert with
all the critical stakeholders at the state, local government and host
communities to bring to an end the activities of the illegal miners.
Alake
said the involvement of the host communities became imperative because
at the end of the day whatever security strategy the committee comes up
with will involve the host communities and the people on the ground who
have efficient knowledge of the local terrain.
“One of the things that happen now even in the forest that is unknown
to many people is that the bandits who the highly placed Nigerians are
sponsoring have access to funding and heavy arsenal.
“They even laid mines on the ground against our ground forces that
were moving in the forest to dislodge them. That is why we require the
military’s presence, involvement and engagement,” he added.
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