There is tension in Zamfara State as a plot to compromise the National Security Adviser (NSA), Major-General Babagana Monguno(rtd), and the Minister for Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, over the recent “no-flight-zone” declared in the state by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Aso Villa sources disclosed last night that what irked the President the most was that some of the foreign illegal miners are linked to acts of banditry with the suspicion that the Zamfara State government simply ignored the destruction and desolation of some villages where the mining takes place and tolerates the use of chopper flights in and out to facilitate illegal mining.

Also worrying to the President, it was learned, was the fact that the state government had attempted to facilitate the granting of federal licenses to some longtime illegal miners without questioning their acts violating the rights of Zamfara villagers whose land and community, like in Bagega, witnessed untold sufferings because of the activities of the miners.

According to a Villa source “it is unconscionable that the government will ignore the protection of its people just because some of its top officials have monetary benefits from the mining.”

The National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, had, on March 2, in his post-National Security Council media briefing, disclosed that the President has declared Zamfara’s air space a no-fly-zone, after a decision was reached at the Council meeting held in the Presidential Villa.

He said the President issued the order in a bid to put an end to banditry that has ravaged some parts of the North-West and North-Central states, especially in Zamfara State, hence the need for the declaration of a no-fly-zone. In essence, what this means is, Zamfara has now become an air exclusion zone (AEZ), and as a result, aircraft are not permitted to fly within or across the state’s air space.

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Coupled with the no-fly-zone decision, the NSA made it known that the President had equally banned all mining activities in the state, just as he earlier did in 2019, saying the ban was to curb the rising insecurity in the state.

As Monguno said, the intelligence and security communities “have been mandated to go after all non-state actors, whose activities have been fueling chaos, for prosecution,” quoting the President as saying, he “has charged the new service chiefs to reclaim all areas under the control of bandits, insurgents and kidnappers, and all others involved in criminal activities across the country.”

“We are not going to be blackmailed. The government has the responsibility to assert its will. Citizens can reside wherever they want to reside. Anybody who is a criminal should be brought to book,” Monguno had said.

What many did not know at the time of that press briefing was that stakeholders in the state made attempts to avert the President’s decisive steps by offering some ministers and close aides around the President some form of inducements, including sharing returns from mining proceeds.

The offers were roundly rejected days before the Council meeting. But some of these stakeholders, irked by this decision and faulted the President on his declaration, were quick to label Munguno as the brain behind the “no-fly-zone” declaration.

The Zamfara State Assembly even passed a vote of no confidence on the NSA, leaving observers to wonder how an arm of a state government can make such resolutions regarding a Federal official who is not in any way under the purview of the state government. An Aso Villa source said, “that is only proof of their desperation.”

In a press statement two days after the NSA announced the Presidential No Fly Zone order, the Zamfara Assembly said: “In an apparent rejection to the federal government no-fly zone order imposed on the state and total ban on mining activities, coupled with a nonchalant attitude and poor handling of protracted security challenges in the state by the National Security Adviser to the President retired Major General Babagana Mungonu, the state House of Assembly yesterday at its plenary passed vote of no confidence on him.”

They are not stopping at that as findings have also revealed that a campaign of calumny against the person of the NSA had been perfected, and certain elements from political divides in the country, especially from his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), including a former minister will be used.

Villa insiders however explained that it became necessary for a further proactive measure to be taken from the Presidency because Zamfara is the state worst hit by the uptick of violence that has killed scores of people since the start of the year. The surge began three years ago, rising to a point it prompted the deployment of the Air Force and 1,000 security personnel to the state. Earlier this week the President approved the further deployment of additional 6,000 troops to the affected areas in the state.

Commenting on the situation, the Vanguard newspaper editorial of March 10 had noted that “Private jets and helicopters” are alleged to supply arms to outlaws and illegally evacuate the gold mined in the state to some Middle Eastern countries. Many analysts see this measure, including the “shoot on sight” order against carriers of AK-47 assault rifles in the forests, as a positive sign that the Buhari government is finally going all-out against armed hoodlums wreaking havoc on innocent citizens from their forest hideouts.”

Just of late, 300 female students of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara were abducted amidst the worsening security situation in the state and across the country. The schoolgirls’ abduction in Zamfara had occurred about two weeks after dozens of students and staff members were abducted by armed bandits from a school in Kagara, Niger State. However, students of both schools have been released by the bandits and have since reunited with their parents.

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Before now between 2010 and 2013, over 700 children died in Zamfara State due to lead poisoning associated with artisanal gold mining activities, which also contaminates surrounding land, water, and air with other toxic chemicals such as mercury.

As reliably gathered, a security source said the military security reports had indicted some persons, who have been fingered in the rising insurgency and banditry in his state, due to the empowerment given illegal miners in Zamfara, especially the foreigners, most of whom were said to be Chinese nationals.

The security report had it that many stakeholders in the state are collaborators with the Chinese illegal miners, who, it was reliably gathered are suspected to be linked with activities of banditry going on alongside these illegal mining sites in Zamfara State.

As reliably gathered from security sources, before these illegal miners and their local recruits, who had been cleared by the state government arrive at the gold mining sites of their choice, the traitorous bandits would have stormed the communities where the operations will take place to render the areas desolate for the illegal miners to have a field day.

Having secured the sites for them, the Chinese move around these illegal mining sites in Zamfara, flying in with helicopters to bypass immigration checkpoints, and this, it was said, account for the persistence of the banditry and insurgency, as the military activities are undermined by criminals who profiteer from the sector at the expense of vulnerable populations.

As further gathered from security sources, it was the collaboration between the state government, other politically connected Nigerians and the Chinese who engage in illegal gold mining, that ignites rural banditry and violent local conflicts in Zamfara, and in other parts of the North-West and North-Central and to some extent South-West regions, who has recently witnessed a surge in kidnapping across its region.

It was reliably gathered that well over 80% of mining of gold in Zamfara and other areas of the North-West region is carried out illegally by Chinese supported by locals already engaged to join in the illicit business.

The Aso Rock source, however explained that what the Federal Government aimed to achieve with its decision of declaring Zamfara a no-flight-zone was to curtail the Chinese illegal miners, who fly in helicopters illegally while they also work with the insurgents, and thereby undermining governments efforts at ending insurgency war.

The mining of large untapped mineral deposits in the area, especially gold which has strategic importance and economic value, is at the root of community violence.

Vanguard News Nigeria