Former governor of Zamfara has refuted claims that illegal gold mining is responsible for perennial insecurity, especially banditry, in the state.
Speaking on Channels TV on Friday, Yerima disclosed that the gold deposit in Zamfara is quite small to engender banditry.
“This has always been there and the illegal mining that is going on there is of a very small scale; artisan mining.”
“We don’t have any industry or any large-scale or medium-scale mining going on in the state. People are just talking about it but we have solid minerals in the Northern part of Nigeria but that is not the cause at all,” he said.
“The Federal government’s previous administration banned all sorts of mining in Nigeria because they are all illegal.”
On his successor, Bello Matawalle’s assertion that bandits were involved in the commerce of gold for firearms and ammunition, Yerima said ” I think he just said it.”
“When I saw him presenting gold to Mr Pesident (Muhammadu Buhari) I was shocked because where do we process such in Nigeria.”
He also dismissed what he described as “speculations” of the involvement of foreign corporations in the illegal trade of gold in the country.
When asked about possible involvement in the trade as well as turning a blind eye to it, the Senator said, “I assure you that nothing going on as far as large-scale mining in Zamfara state, we have artisan mining, in fact it is villagers that are going into it. But for a proper mining, it is capital intensive.”