The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, has said the Federal Government will avenge the killing of 12 miners by bandits at Unguwar Magro village in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State.
The minister said preliminary reports on the attack showed that foreign miners funded the attack on Wednesday afternoon.
He said security agencies were on the trail of the killers, assuring families of the victims that the culprits would be made to face the wrath of the law.
Alake announced that no form of mining would be allowed to occur at the scene of the attack until security agencies have concluded investigations into the killings.
In a statement yesterday in Abuja by his Media Special Assistant, Segun Tomori, the minister said security agencies would not rest until all mines across the country are safe from bandits and other criminals seeking to possess Nigeria’s mineral-rich areas by violence.
Alake said mining marshals were working with intelligence units and other security agencies to make the recent attack a special case of collaboration among security agencies to track the pattern of operations of the bandits suspected to have infiltrated Shiroro Local Government Area from neighbouring states.
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“There is a new Sheriff in town. Combatting banditry in the mining sector is a mandate we are taking seriously. Those who think they can invade villages and kill innocent people to make way for illegal mining of their rich minerals will be shocked to discover that it is no longer business as usual.
“With the Mining Marshals working with the intelligence community, we shall fish out these hoodlums and put their hands to the fire,” he said.
Alake said preliminary reports fingered non-Nigerians active in the mining businesses as funders of such operations.
The minister warned that anyone found would be prosecuted for economic sabotage and waging war against the Nigerian state.