The chairperson of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Bolaji Owasanoye, has attributed the incessant violent crimes in Zamfara State to illegal mining of gold in the state.
Zamfara State is a hotbed of banditry and kidnapping-for-ransom ravaging the North-west and North-central regions of the country.
Speaking at the fourth annual public awareness lecture series on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) held at Nile University, Abuja, on Tuesday, Mr Owasanoye spoke of the impact of illicit proceeds of corruption and economic crimes on the political stability and security of a nation.
“It is difficult to divorce the raging violent crimes in Zamfara State of Nigeria from the illegal gold mining by Nigerians and collaborators from the West Africa region and beyond, which had gone on for years unabated,” Mr Owasanoye said at the event organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group on Money Laundering in Africa (GIABA).
He added that oil bunkering and crude oil theft “in Nigeria’s Niger Delta, has (have) been associated with different froms of violence in the region”.
Mr Owasanoye, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria and professor of law, also blamed unchecked corruption, economic crimes, money laundering and other related crimes for the West-African under-development.