Foreigners operating mining sites in Zamfara State have been given 48 hours to vacate the locations as the Federal Government on Sunday launched an operation to flush out bandits terrorising residents of the state.
The government formally extended its Operation Puff Adder to Zamfara State on Sunday.
The operation had been launched earlier last week to address rising incidents of kidnappings along the Abuja-Kaduna Highway.
This directive is coming as President Buhari Muhammadu Buhari described as “ridiculous,” suggestions in some quarters that he did nothing to stop the killings in Zamfara.
He also appealed to some people whom he claimed were politicising the killings to stop henceforth.
But the Peoples Democratic Party said if the President was finding the “job too difficult to do, he should call for help or quit.”
The opposition party also advised President Buhari to rejig his security architecture and find lasting solutions to the myriad of problems facing the country and the citizens.
However, while addressing State House correspondents in Abuja on Sunday after a meeting with heads of other security agencies, the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, explained that there was a link between mining and banditry in Zamfara State.
Adamu stated that government’s first move was to immediately suspend all mining activities in the state until further notice.
He warned that any foreign miner, who flouted the order, did so at the risk of losing his operational licence.Adamu said the security operation against the bandits would be jointly carried out by the police, the military and the Department of State Services.
The IG also said that some persons used the social media to spread what he called “fake news” on the security situation in Zamfara State.
He appealed to such persons to verify their information before passing it to the public.