As part of its strategies to curb terrorism and tackle insecurity in the country, the National Security Council has said that it is considering a nationwide ban on motorcycles and mining activities.
This was disclosed on Thursday by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who addressed State House correspondents after the President, Muhammadu Buhari, met with Security Chiefs in Abuja.
According to Malami, there is an ongoing investigation to establish the correlation between mining and motorcycles, which they suspect provides funding for the supply of arms to the terrorists. He stressed that banning motorcycles and mining activities would cut off terrorists’ sources of funding
Malami also noted that terrorists had moved from the conventional ways of funding their activities to mining and ransom taking. He disclosed that the government was not unaware of the economic consequences of the proposed resolutions, particularly the motorcycle ban but it has become imperative in order to guarantee the nation’s security.
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On his part, the Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, who spoke on the attack on Kuje Medium Correctional Prison, said that despite the extensive intelligence gathered before the onslaught, the attacks succeeded because there was “no will to act.”
Aregbesola revealed that President Buhari had received a report on the preliminary investigation of the Kuje attack and officers who have been found to renege on their responsibilities would face dire consequences.
Terrorist groups, particularly in Nigeria, are increasingly interested in controlling areas of production of gold. This may have contributed to the increased terrorist attacks in the nation’s northeast.
The opportunistic nature of these activities ties strongly to the fact that gold is often the favoured mineral of the terrorist groups as many of these groups use this to secure a source of funding for future operations.
The proposed banning of motorcycles, however, posed another major security threat to the protection of lives and properties of Nigerians, especially if the government failed as usual to provide a means of livelihood for the millions of citizens who genuinely survive daily on commercial motorcycling.
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