By Olusegun Adeniyi
A new report, ‘The Shadow Owners,’ published by the Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics Limited (AERE) has confirmed how the worsening insecurity in our country is being fuelled by powerful forces that are linked to illegal mining that is now effectively a multi-billion dollars organised crime. Last November, ‘Daily Trust’ published a similar report of how gold from Zamfara is being bartered for guns that fuel the violence across the Northwest. “We exchange the gold for weapons. We give them the gold and they bring us the guns,” a notorious bandit leader Kachalla Mati, reportedly told the newspaper through an intermediary. “Sometimes we sell it here; sometimes we send it to Dubai.” Newspapers
Mati, who reportedly controls several mining camps scattered across Anka, Kawaye and Dan-kamfani in Zamfara State, earns between N200 million and N300 million weekly from illicit gold mining, according to the report. The proceeds, he admitted to the newspaper, are mostly channelled into buying firearms from suppliers operating along the Nigeria–Niger–Mali corridor. It is therefore little surprise that after the offices of President, Governor, Senator and House of Representatives, Minister, what some young Nigerians—especially those without education or skills—now desire is to be a Kachala. Some of them even maintain social media accounts!
While launching ‘Operation Puff Adder’ on 5 April 2019, then Inspector General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu confirmed that there is a “glaring nexus between the activities of armed bandits and illicit miners, with both mutually re-enforcing each other.” From ‘A society governed by rustlers’ to ‘Let’s kill all their men’ to ‘The Zamfara Killing Fields’ and ‘Criminal Cartels on the Loose’, this is also an issue that I have engaged several times on this page. In a 2018 column, ‘Beyond the Banditry in Zamfara’, I quoted a prominent northern politician with whom I spoke who said: “It is the criminal gangs behind illegal mining that supply most of the arms and they have godfathers among prominent people in Zamfara.”
Whether we want to admit it or not, a discernible gangster ethos now defines living and livelihoods in many of the communities where gold is mined as sundry criminal cartels carve empires for themselves. But these entrepreneurs of violence feel emboldened because they consider themselves above the law and in a way, they are. As the Daily Trust report reveals, this is a straightforward but deadly commerce. “Gold mined under armed supervision is stockpiled, smuggled through porous borders, and exchanged directly with gunrunners. These dealers supply automatic rifles, ammunition, and motorcycles used for raids on villages. When direct exchange is impossible, the gold is sold in regional black markets, with the cash used to purchase weapons from intermediaries in the Sahel.”
Over the years, there have been many crucial leads on the sources of insecurity in Nigeria. For instance, following a tip-off in July 2016, the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) arrested an obscure fruit seller under a bridge in Zaria, Kaduna State. Investigations later revealed the man to be a high-ranking Boko Haram operative who was coordinating their finance cell with others in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) by disbursing funds to various terror camps in Northeast Nigeria as well as Diffa, Nigér Republic. The Zaria arrest eventually revealed a pattern of financial flows not only to Boko Haram field operatives but also to other criminal cartels, particularly those engaged in kidnappings for ransom.
Between 2015 and 2016, according to ONSA investigation, the sum of $782,000 was transferred from Dubai to Nigeria through Bureau De Change (BDC) operators to aid Boko Haram. This was what led to the April 2019 conviction in Dubai of six Nigerians, including a man identified as a government official whose name remains a mystery till today. But the Dubai security breakthrough helped to expose how some of the criminal networks operating in Nigeria had perfected a seamless method of laundering money through BDC operators. Once the money has been given to a BDC operator in Dubai, he contacts an associate in Nigeria who gives the same amount in cash to the coordinator. The coordinator then distributes the funds to members who incidentally have no direct contact with one another, in an elaborate scheme to cover their tracks. The same pattern was discovered for disbursement of ransom monies from kidnappings, especially those traced to illegal mining in Zamfara State.
A combination of porous borders, weak signal and technical intelligence and other associated issues have combined to make banditry the most lucrative enterprise for some criminals who are spreading their tentacles across the country. To his credit, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Oladele Alake is not in denial about the challenge of the sector. He has consistently maintained that powerful forces sponsor most of the violence that now defines our country to secure and control mineral-rich territories. But with the proliferation of arms and hundreds of muscle men working as miners, authorities in the security sector must understand that we are dealing with a serious threat that is not only well organized but also well-funded. And the only way to dismantle this criminal network is to go after the illicit funding with which they procure their arms.
The Accountable Junkie
A video circulating online features a young man, Johnson Kpokpoola, with visibly damaged legs who recounts how he lost everything to drug use. Before he got hooked on drugs, Johnson had trained at a football academy in Akure, Ondo State, alongside peers with the same dream. One of those boys was Victor Boniface, a striker currently playing for Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, on loan from Bayer Leverkusen. While Boniface has made his name in European football and our national team, Super Eagles, Johnson now practically wastes away. By his own account, tramadol is the decisive factor.
The most notable aspect of the interview is not the misfortune itself, which is regrettably common, but Johnson’s explanation of its cause. He states directly that his years of dependence on tramadol, pentazocine, and codeine syrups led to his condition and details the physical consequences. “I dare not wear shorts anymore. Just look at my legs—one is bigger than the other. People see my leg and feel sorry for me because of the wound. They don’t know the wound was caused by drugs,” Johnson confessed. “I even lie to people about how it happened, and they give me money. I still use that money to buy the same injections again. Victor Boniface and I played together at the same academy.”
When the interviewer asked Johnson for proof, he produced a photograph of their time together at the Royal Gold South Academy, Akure. “I am addicted to pentazocine, promethazine and tramadol. I have been using tramadol for about 14 years now,” he said while confirming his helplessness. “Anyone who is addicted to tramadol will testify to what I’m saying. Sometimes when you take it, you don’t even think you have any problems. You don’t even think about food.”
Contrasting his life with that of Boniface while they were both hustling to make a career in football, Johnson said he had it easier. “From my house to the training ground was about a 10-minute walk. From the barracks where Boniface lived, it was about one hour and thirty minutes. He would trek there for training by 4 p.m., finish around 6 p.m., and then trek another one hour and thirty minutes back home. That’s why I am not surprised he made it in football.” On whether he has ever received help from Boniface, Johnson answered in the affirmative. “Even when he was in Norway, he sent me money many times. I also understand why he eventually neglected me. If you’re helping someone and you realise the person doesn’t seem to have any direction or isn’t trying to improve his life, you’ll eventually stop helping,” Johnson said. “I used to disturb him for money all the time, and most of the money I collected from him was used to buy drugs.”
Boniface has confirmed knowing Johnson whom he described as a good guy. In a hilarious post for which he is renown on social media, he added that the interview contained a ‘lie’ because he (Boniface) trekked for two hours from his house to the football field every day and another two hours to return home. Johnson, according to Boniface, ‘edited’ his trekking by 30 minutes on each leg of the journey!
The timing of this discussion is relevant. Last Friday, June 26 marked the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking with the theme, ‘World drug problem: persisting issues, new challenges, innovative responses.’ The most recent National Drug Use Survey estimates about 14.3 million Nigerians aged 15 to 64 use psychoactive substances, representing one in seven individuals and nearly three times the global average. The substances involved, such as tramadol, pentazocine, and codeine, are inexpensive and widely accessible, especially among young people. But more ominously, it is most prevalent among the criminals that now hold our country by the jugular.
Following the 2018 British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) documentary, ‘Secrets of Nigeria’s illicit codeine trade revealed’, by Ms Ruona Meyer (nee Agbroko), the then Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan (who later became Senate President) lent credence to the nexus between substance abuse and Boko Haram insurgency. “The information I got this morning is that 70% of this codeine that comes into Nigeria finds its way into Sambisa Forest,” Lawan said at the time. “We may even have some of our security agents who are under the influence of drugs.”
While receiving the Sheikh Ahmed Gumi-led ‘Bandits Repentance Initiative’, then Governor (now a Senator) Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State shared a revealing anecdote. “A counterpart of mine, a serving governor, once narrated to me an incidence. He visited a hamlet and wanted to patronise the local women coming back from the market where they had gone to hawk dairy products, and one of them ran away. He asked what the problem was and was told that she (the woman who ran away) wasn’t carrying dairy products in her calabash but drugs,” Tambuwal recounted. “My colleague told me that much of the drugs used by the kidnappers and violent marauders get to them this way.”
The National Law Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Chairman, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd), has done a lot in fighting the scourge. But as commendable as Marwa’s efforts are—and he truly deserves accolades—the challenge is rather overwhelming. Especially in a country where amphetamine-type stimulants and dangerous over-the counter (OTC) drugs are available on every street corner while syndicates adapt, and society continues to frame addiction as a moral failing rather than a problem to be solved.
Now, let’s go back to Johnson. An individual many might dismiss as a ‘junkie’ and destitute publicly accepted responsibility for the wrong choices that have landed him where he is today. In contrast, public officials frequently deflect blame: poor infrastructure is attributed to previous administrations, depleted treasuries to saboteurs, insecurity to ‘external forces’ etc. But we should not reduce Johnson’s experience to a simplistic moral lesson. When it comes to drug abuse, clinicians emphasize that recovery begins with acknowledging the problem, a step Johnson has taken publicly. Committing to a rehabilitation pathway and sticking to it is a more difficult challenge.
In many ways, Nigeria itself mirrors Johnson’s tragic struggle: a nation hooked on the narcotic of illicit financial flows from irregular mining and the violence it sustains. Just as Johnson admitted that tramadol robbed him of health, dignity, and opportunity, so too do the cartels and their patrons know that this addiction to blood‑gold robs the country of human development, stability, and prosperity. Yet, like Johnson, the State remains unable to break free without external help and a deliberate rehabilitation programme. Until Nigeria confronts this dependency with honesty and designs a firm pathway to recovery, it will continue to stagger between denial and decay, wasting away while others march forward.
Overall, one lesson I have taken from Johnson is that a person’s capacity for growth is inseparable from their willingness to face uncomfortable truths about themselves without hesitation. That for me is why Johnson deserves help. And if there are some genuine efforts to rehabilitate him, I am willing to offer my support.
RIGHT OF REPLY: You’re Wrong on NDIC!
By Hawwau Gambo
Dear Mr Adeniyi,
In your column of 4 June 2026 titled, ‘Federal Republic of Waste’, you linked an alleged abandoned property at 67 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, to the defunct Credite Bank. The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) wishes to clarify that the building in question was not owned by Credite Bank. Rather, it was a rented premises occupied by the defunct bank as its head office. Upon the revocation of the bank’s licence and the handover of the bank to the NDIC by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Corporation, in its capacity as the official liquidator, disposed of all the assets and chattels belonging to the bank in accordance with the liquidation process. However, being the property of a third party, the building was returned to its rightful owner and thus, did not form part of the bank’s assets available for disposal.
We therefore wish to assure your readers that the NDIC remains committed to transparency, accountability and the efficient management of the assets of failed banks in accordance with its statutory mandate. This clarification is necessary to correct the wrong impression inadvertently created in your column.
Gambo is Head, Communication & Public Affairs Department at the NDIC.
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