We Won’t Bow to Blackmail Dele Alake Vows to Sustain Mining Clampdown

Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has declared that the federal government will not succumb to blackmail or smear campaigns aimed at halting its ongoing clampdown on illegal mining operations in Nigeria.

Speaking during a retreat to evaluate the solid minerals sector in Abuja, Alake said the resistance to reform is coming from individuals and groups who have long benefitted from unregulated mining activities.

“The challenges that I’ve seen, in a nutshell, are not administrative at all; they are external,” he said.

He noted that the establishment of the Mine Marshals—an enforcement unit created to tackle illegal mining—has triggered attacks from vested interests.

“In fact, some came to say that the leader of the mine marshals is asking them for bribes and that they’ve paid him bribes,” Alake stated. “I said, ‘wow, this is what I’ve been looking for. Please give me the evidence.’ One of them said he was coming back the following day with the evidence. That was six months ago. I’m yet to see him.”

The minister revealed that a television station recently retracted and apologised for airing a false report accusing the head of the Mine Marshals of misconduct.

“At some point, the man came to me to say one medium blackmailed him,” he said. “I said, ‘well, did you do it?’ He said no, he didn’t do it. I said, okay, get a lawyer to sue that medium. And he did. Forty-eight hours later, that same medium, a TV station, put up a public apology because they were paid to do the hatchet job.”

Alake affirmed the ministry’s commitment to its mission, declaring: “Our hands are on the plough, and there’s no looking back.”

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