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OPINION: Ilorin And Dan Fodio’s Deadstock [Monday Lines (1)]

Published

1 year ago

July 15, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

Justice Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, JCA became the Emir of Ilorin in August 1995 and decreed the ‘Kolapo’ in his name abolished. He said he should thenceforth be known and called Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari; all former documents remain valid. He gave no reason for his decision but not a few of us thought it was his way of hiding the Yoruba content in the bloodstream of the House of Shehu Alimi, his Fulani roots. When Emir Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari took that unusual, surprising step, little did he know that the day would come when his aunt, Hajia Maryam, married to a king of Kano, and her sons would suffer discrimination and be tagged ‘Yoruba’.

It is the way of toads to detour into any available crater whenever it discovers it can no longer find its way to the stream. The chairman of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Kano State, Hashim Dungurawa, a few days ago addressed journalists in Kano and alleged that President Bola Tinubu was working hard to impose the deposed 15th emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, on the emirate because he shared same Yoruba background with the president. “If the President thinks he will use a few of his kinsmen in Kano and the alleged Bayero’s Yoruba lineage to continue to keep the deposed Emir Aminu Ado Bayero in the state, let him wait for 2027, we will show him that those people will not help him,” Dungurawa warned. When you heard his threats about 2027, you would think that Kano votes mattered in 2023. The votes were like rain water; they were surplus but they were wasted, unhelpful, unuseful to the person they were cast for. The same will happen in 2027.

The Kano NNPP man who spoke is not a lone wolf. He is a member of a preening pack that think themselves special and others of lesser breed. I understand what he voiced out has been in the whispering lips of the sands and boulders of Kano even before the emirship crisis unfolded. They call the deposed emir “son of the Yoruba woman.”

Around here, a child does not claim his father’s compound and disclaim his mother’s homestead. Aminu Ado Bayero is a grandson of the 8th emir of Ilorin; Aminu’s mother was a sister to the mother of the incumbent Ilorin emir. Ordinarily, this long line of Fulani ancestry should be a plus for whoever has it in the Fulani north, but in the peculiar politics of our feudal Nigeria, the Ilorin ruling family would only be recognized as ‘northern’ if they knew their limits. I hope they know now that they are fringe elements and fringe elements can never be allowed to dip their hands into the main bowl of the house.

Hashim Dungurawa, the NNPP chief who said loudly what was being said in whispers, is even said not to be a Fulani himself. He is said to be Hausa – the original owners of Kano before the Dan Fodio Jihad threw them into the sea of the barren street. Did you notice the irony here?

There is no ‘pure’ blood anywhere. It is 201 years this year that Afonja lost his ancestral throne of Ilorin to the children of Sheikh Alimi, his spiritual adviser and friend. In those two centuries, the children of Alimi, from generation to generation, have remained Fulani only by name, history and ancestry. Mohammodu Odolaye Aremu was a Dadakuada musical artiste of Ilorin ancestry. He died in 1997. He expended a great deal of his career years effusively singing the cultural and political histories of his city of birth for the careful to note and ponder on. Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari reigned in Ilorin from 1959 to 1992. He was the father of the present Emir Ibrahim Gambari. Odolaye waxed a record for the grand old man chanting his oríkì. He serenaded him “Alabi Òpó mo gbádùn oko mi ojo/ Súlú Oba gbogbo wa ní Ilorin…(Alabi Opo, I enjoy my lord / Sulu, our king in Ilorin). ‘Alabi’ is a personal Yoruba oríkì; the ‘Opo’ that follows it is the lineage panegyric (oríkì orílè). That lineage is Òpómúléró, the nearest English translation is ‘mainframe’. That is a lineage that feeds stubborn wine to stubborn child and proceeds to send that recalcitrant, drunk child to war. They proudly say they did it to Afonja who went to war never to come back:

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Òpó tí ò gboràn, e kojú è síná

Iná tí ò gboràn, e kojú è sómi

Omi tí ò gboràn, baba wa ní á fi pon’tí

Otí tí ò gboràn, e f’ómo líle mu

Omo líle tí ò gboràn, e rán an rojú Ogun

Sebí Ogun náà l’Àfònjá lo tí ò fi padà wálé mó

Omo kèké ta dídùn, aso lèdìdì ènìyàn.

Emir Mohammed Sulu-Gambari was alive when Odolaye waxed his record and called him Alabi Opo. The emir did not ask the bard to shut up and did not say he wasn’t what he was called. He valued and enjoyed the Yoruba content of his existence so much that his children remained valued additions to the cultural assets of the land they inherited while maintaining their links to their paternal ancestors.

It is interesting that people who lost their ‘critical’ voices in the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s ruinous reign are now raising their chords. And, Tinubu, because he is a Yoruba man, is the whipping boy for the years of the Buhari locust. What they do with the successor to their Bayajidda II is what the Germans call “den Hund vor dem Löwen schlagen” – beat a dog before/for a lion. They think their throats should be the only expressway to heaven. Dungurawa’s snide broadside to the Yoruba was vilely divisive, provocative and unfortunate but his Kano and Ilorin victims must thank him (and his masters) for waking them up. They (the victims), at least, should be aware now that the butterfly may be winged and fly like a bird, but it is not a bird and won’t be allowed to enjoy bird privileges. It will be interesting to know how ex-emir Aminu, his brothers and sisters in Kano and their uncles in Ilorin took the statement from those they thought were their kinsmen- the authorities in Kano.

It is very interesting that for the Fulani North, because of the throne of Kano, Ilorin is no longer a Fulani town. God is great. But I commend them. It is always good to drop whatever is not yours no matter how long you’ve held on to it. Ilorin did not start as a settlement of the Fulani; the emirate there is a progeny of conquest. It is a victim of the characteristic Yoruba blind-fight for thrones. They fought and shredded their velvet, the Fulani picked it up and from it sewed an empire. The modern version of how 19th century Yoruba treated their heritage is what you see in Kano and Sokoto today. My friend in Kaduna told me that in Sokoto and Kano after the last elections, deposition of kings was the sole slogan: “Sabon Gwamna, Sabon Sarki” (new governor, new king). And they are working hard at it. That was the Yoruba misadventure that delivered Ilorin to Fulani forces in 1823/24.

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There is an irony in some Kano people calling a prince or princess from Ilorin an outsider. The founder of Ilorin emirate, Sheikh Al-Salih (alias Shehu Alimi), was a Fulani who hailed from Tankara in present Niger Republic. It was from there he came to school in Bunza, present Kebbi State in today’s Nigeria. Just like him, Uthman Dan Fodio, the founder of the Sokoto caliphate, and by extension the emirate of Kano, was born in Maratta in the Tahoua region of today’s Niger Republic. An account said Alimi was a contemporary of Uthman Dan Fodio with Jibril bin Umar as their common teacher. But history did not say Alimi started out as a jihadist in the mould of Dan Fodio. He was a simple preacher and itinerant spiritualist who hawked his knowledge and power from one Yoruba town to the other. He was in Old Oyo, Iseyin, Ogbomoso and Kuwo before Afonja, a prince of Oyo, invited him to Ilorin in aid of his independence (rebellion) against his lord, the Alaafin. The rest is well recorded by history.

The more you read Ilorin’s well-documented history, the more you understand the tapestry of its ethnic configuration. There are tomes of materials available to the patient who is also curious to know. There is Ahmad b. Abi’s ‘Talifakhbar al qurun min Umara ‘ balad Ilurin’ (1912) with its critique by H. O. Danmole (1984). There is H.B. Hermon-Hodge’s ‘Gazetteer of Ilorin Province’ (1929). There is H. O. Danmole and Toyin Falola’s ‘The Documentation of Ilorin by Samuel Ojo Bada’. There is J.A. Atanda’s ‘The Fulani Jihad and the Collapse of the Old Oyo Empire’. There is also Stefan Reichmuth’s ‘Imam Umaru’s Account of the Origins of the Ilorin Emirate’ (1993); and then, Ann O’Hear’s ‘Elite Slaves in Ilorin in the 19th and 20th Centuries’ (2006). There are many more from local historians here and there.

Ilorin has the enviable luck of being a melting pot for all races, “tribes and tongues”. You find there people who would proudly say their ancestors were Fulani or Hausa or Kanuri or Dendi, Nupe, Baruba, Wangara, even Arabs. Yet, they are all ‘Yoruba’ today and they are proud to speak the language. You want to ask why the conqueror speaks the language of the conquered? It is because the Yoruba gene is very resistant to assimilation; the conquerors only got the throne, the soul refused to stay in their pouch. The Yoruba culture does what dams do to their surrounding environment. Their backwaters fester and consume their catchment areas. It is arguably the only African culture that survived slavery outside Africa. Go to Brazil, to Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, about 200 years after slavery, descendants of Yoruba slaves there proudly raise the banner of their fathers. That is the case with the essential Yoruba-Ilorin.

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While politicians in Kano are busy making identity nooses to hang their opponents, their street is dead drunk with tears of hunger and want. But the people rarely matter in matters like this. They won’t ever revolt; re-vote of their tormentors is what they will do. So, I have no dog in the bitter contest for the throne of Kano. The same should be our reaction to the machete attacks on the traditional powers and privileges of the Sultan of Sokoto by the state governor. At best, I watch events in those places the way I watched Sunday’s epic final of Euro 2024 football match between England and Spain. The Game of Thrones in the Fulani north, from Kano to Sokoto, is therefore, to me, entertainment. We run commentaries such as this only because, as the Yoruba say, it is always good to show the goopy snail that its eyes are caked with mucus.

Krishna Udayasankar, Singapore-based Indian writer and author of ‘3’ – a novel on the founding of Singapore, believes that “no empire lasts forever, no dynasty continues unbroken” How is the Kano kingship crisis going to end for the ruling class in northern Nigeria? When you combine what is happening in that city with the simmering volcano in Sokoto, would you be wrong if you say the signs portend sundown for the elaborate empire built by Dan Fodio in the first decade of the 19th century? No intervention can save that empire from itself. Maybe that elaborate realm has to die for Nigeria to live and thrive.

While the battle for thrones rages on, the Dan Fodio clan got a whole ministry from Tinubu last week. The president called it the Ministry of Livestock Development. I heard their elites’ happy footfalls. Who told the Fulbe that their problem would be over with a special ministry for their cows? Something tells me they know too that they are only interested in the billions that will be pumped into that loss centre. My dictionary says the opposite of livestock is deadstock. Something tells me that is the fruit from that luxuriant tree unless they change their ways. But they won’t change. For them, it is already past midnight.

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Foundation Offers Free Medical Serves To Edo Community

Published

11 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Editor

As part of its campaign against extractive activities and promotion of healthy living in the Niger Delta region, an environmental think-tank organisation — The Ecological Action Advocacy Foundation (TEAAF) on Monday offered free medical services to the people of Gelegele community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.

The free medical services which included eye screening, sugar level and BP tests, general medical examination and counseling, etc, saw over 150 people benefitting from the free medical outreach.

The beneficiaries were also offered the appropriate reading eyeglasses and medications as the outcome of their tests required.

In her speech, Project Director, TEAAF, Ann Ajirioghene Offi, said though it was not the first time her organisation is taking free medical services to the community, the need to offer the current free medical services to Gelegele people arise during a dialogue with them where they narrated different health challenges to the representatives of the organisation.

A cross section of beneficiaries of the outreach

Offi, who described Gelegele as a Community of Particular Concern to her organisation, said the health challenges keep increasing by the day as a result of extractive activities, gas flares and negligence.

She said: “We have seen that there are a lot of health challenges in this community, and this is as a result of the location of the community, and the ongoing extractive activities in the community, most especially the gas flares in the heart of the community. The gas flare has resulted in a lot of health challenges in the community, according to our research.

“We felt it’s very vital for us to bring free medical services here going by the health challenges facing the people.

“The challenges keep increasing by the day as a result of negligence. Negligence in the sense that the health centre in the community is not functional as it ought to be, and from my observation, no medical equipment in the clinic to take care of people.”

Eyeglasses display displayed during the medical outreach for distribution.

One of the beneficiaries, Clement Eyenmi, expressed joy and appreciated TEAAF for the free medical services, saying “our people need an organisation as this to come to their aid.”

He lamented that despite his age, he’s already having eye challenges as a result of the gas flares in the heart of the community.

“In this our environment, and personally for me, I have an eye challenge as a result of this gas flaring in the heart of our community. But today, I was attended to; I was given a reading glasses.

“The oil company flares the gas but does not bother about the welfare of the people, or show concern about the environment. This is a major problem we have here.

Medical personnel attending to a beneficiary.

“What this organisation is doing today is what we expect the government and the oil company to do, but they will never do such,” he added.

Also speaking, another beneficiary, Bobby Ikinbor, also appreciated TEAAF for the free medical services, saying “we do not have a standard hospital here, so, today, as this organisation brings this free medical services, it is a relief to us. We appreciate the organisation.”

He added: “You see, at times when we have an emergency health challenge and we try to rush the person to the city, we have to pray because of the bad condition of the road. At times the emergency patient dies before we get to the city.”

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OPINION: Nigeria Deserves A President Donald Trump

Published

18 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

“I spoke with AJ on the phone to personally convey my condolences… He assured me that he is receiving the best care in the hospital.” From wherever he then was, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu relayed that Anthony Joshua, the British-born boxer of Nigerian descent involved in a recent car accident, had told him he was receiving the best medical attention in Nigeria.

Yet, with something as ordinary as a headache, the same president routinely jets out of the country for treatment, sometimes to the United Kingdom, sometimes to France, sometimes to destinations left undisclosed. No one asks Mr. President why he can not stay behind and partake of that same “best care in the hospital” available at home.

Instead, we busy ourselves with tallying the number of days he spends abroad, and when the arithmetic is done, we move on. Nothing more is demanded; nothing more is explained.

So, if tomorrow a President Donald Trump were to bar Nigerians from travelling to the United States for medical treatment, we would promptly denounce him as a racist. Yet the very next day, we would assemble a cultural troupe to welcome home a medical tourist president, one who left Nigeria quietly, without telling us what ailed him, and returned triumphantly after treatment abroad.

That is our lot; the predicament of a people wedded to decay and decadence. And it is precisely this contradiction, this ritual of self-deception, that makes it easy for some world leaders to dismiss Nigeria as a disgraced country.

President Trump is a man many love to hate. And justifiably too. The man attracts ‘hatred’ for himself as if his mission on earth is to do what many consider ‘despicable.’

I, however, have a different opinion about the man who rules America at the moment. I see him as more of an American patriot than the brute many people project him to be. I don’t see anything wrong in a president asking non-nationals to go back and fix their own countries. That, to me, is the central message of the Trump Presidency. My understanding of his philosophy on governance is that citizens should hold their leaders accountable, rather than fleeing their countries.

This is one of the reasons I hardly argue about Nigeria and its numerous failing institutions with any Nigerian living outside the shores of the country, especially those who japa less than 20 years ago. My position is simple: if you know that Nigeria is being run by the best of men now, just pack your bags and baggage and come back home. A friend once asked me why I don’t see anything wrong in “the racist called Trump”, and I responded by asking him to come back home and enjoy our nationalist president. If farming is an easy venture, blacksmiths will not sell hoes and cutlasses. Those are the words of our elders.

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Three days into the New Year 2026, President Trump opened the New Year on a very good note for the people of Venezuela. Venezuelans, at home and in the diaspora, woke up that Saturday, January 3, 2026, morning to discover that they had no president. Trump, using the sophisticated American soldiers in the US elite corps, invaded Venezuela in the dead of the night and abducted, if you like, kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Surprisingly, the people rejoiced at the news!

The husband and wife were in bed when the American soldiers came calling. One can picture how startled they were when they saw the strange faces in their inner room. The shock, especially when Maduro had, less than a month ago, boasted that he was safe and secure and dared America to come after him, is better imagined! What if the couple were making out when the intruders arrived?

Hours later, Trump boasted of the feat as “an extraordinary military operation,” during which “air, land, and sea were used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War Two.” He then described the operation as “…. One of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history” as the Venezuelan military capacities were “rendered powerless”, and “…. the men and women of our military working with US law enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.” Could this be the reason why our elders advise that when one’s mother’s co-wife is older, one must call her mother (Tí ìyàwó ìyá eni bá ju ìyà eni lo, ìyá làá pèé).

A great public speaker, Trump warned that “This extremely successful operation should serve as a warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.” He listed those to be warned to include Cuba, saying, “I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation. And we want to help the people. It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba.”

Trump is a consummate power wielder. He did not forget Colombia. It is a known fact worldwide that Colombia and drugs are Siamese twins. If President Maduro of Venezuela could be ‘captured’ because he was accused of importing cocaine to America, the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, President Trump warned, should “watch his ass”, because “He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass.”

We must get this right from the start. No law permits what President Trump did in Venezuela. The invasion of the presidential palace and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife are bad in all ramifications. America is not the world police. At least, the United Nations (UN), that toothless world bulldog, Charter does not permit such an infraction. The sovereignty of Venezuela was raped by Trump. The sanctity of the human person of President Maduro was violated. Oh, yes, I must add this: the solemnity of the bedroom of Maduro and his wife was desecrated! What if Maduro and his wife had slept naked, as most couples do?

Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits any member state from using force against the territorial integrity (sovereignty) of an independent country. The Charter, in Article 51, only allows the use of force in self-defence, while Articles 24 and 25 permit only the Security Council to use joint or collective force against any independent nation that threatens world peace. So, where did President Trump derive the power to invade another country, pick up the incumbent president, and transport him to America in handcuffs, as he did to President Maduro of Venezuela?

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I have read many comments about the Trump Presidency. This recent action in Venezuela added fuel to the inferno of hatred for the American President. If Nigerians in the Diaspora in America were to choose who governs God’s Own Country, Trump would not have smelled the presidency. In fact, he would not have been elected as the mayor of any city. But unfortunately for the entire world, the American people, or, as someone argued, ‘the American skewed system’, elected Trump as president. Everybody, haters or lovers alike, would have to deal with that fact.

From day one, Trump never hid his identity. He never pretended to be a gentleman. He did not tell anyone that he would run America for foreigners. His ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) mantra is self-explicit. America would be for Americans, he promised. And he has lived up to that. That is honesty in its illiterate form! If you ask me, that is the type of president every nation deserves. No pretence, no diplomacy; all that matters is American interests. I wish Nigeria had such a President, the one who thinks, sleeps and dreams of Nigeria. We have been unfortunate with the selfish individuals that we have had as leaders. The present crop of transactional leaders is the very worst in our recent history.

If I were to choose a president for Nigeria, I would not think twice before picking a character like Trump. A man who places the nation’s interest above any other consideration is the man after my heart. This is what is lacking in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria. A nation that has no defined national interest is bound to be in ruins, like most nations of Africa.

Nigeria has the capacity, in all ramifications, to be great. What we lack is a president who is purposeful, courageous and above all, patriotic. We can imagine that our military became suddenly effective and efficient only after Trump ‘invaded’ Sokoto and cleared out a good number of terrorists. Yet again, nobody is asking what went wrong before the coming of Trump.

I have read so much about the sovereignty of Venezuela. I have no problem with that. But the one question I keep asking the proponents of national sovereignty is: at what time does the respect for a nation’s sovereignty stop? If, for instance, the sovereignty of Nation A threatens the peace of Nation B, what should Nation B do? Should it act in the interest of its own peace or fold its hands while the rudderless nation A acts anyhow?

If President Maduro was exporting drugs to America as Trump alleged, what should be the response of President Trump? I also find it curious that many who talked about the sanctity of the American judiciary in the case involving President Tinubu and the Chicago University certificate are the same set of people saying Maduro would not get justice in America! What a people!

After the ‘capture’ of President Maduro, the American President said that the US would “run” Venezuela. Many said that Trump was only interested in Venezuelan crude oil. Trump himself did not deny that. His press conference after Maduro had been taken into custody was clear enough. America had a huge investment profile in the oil sector of Venezuela. One of the responsibilities of President Trump, and this is applicable to all presidents, is the protection of the American economy at home and abroad. If the US investments are threatened in Venezuela because of the activities of Maduro, would Trump not be failing in his responsibility if he did not act in the name of sovereignty?

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Nnamdi Kingsley Akanni, a professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Rivers State University, in a 2019 paper on “The Concept of Sovereignty in International Law and Relations,” suggests that the concept of sovereignty may be a ruse after all. According to him, “The paper found that what third world countries enjoy is not sovereignty but ‘sovereignty on dictated terms’ of the so-called developed powers.”

The erudite scholar states further that at the end of the research exercise, “The paper also found that smaller States are not accorded protection from developed countries and that until that is done, the concept of sovereignty will continue to be elusive to smaller nations.” He then recommends “…that the UN should take proactive steps to give greater recognition and voice to developing countries as well as offering them the platform to assert their sovereignty in line with international law.”

What the scholar is saying here is that the concept of ‘sovereignty’ exists only when the developed countries are involved. When there is a conflict of interest between the world superpowers and any of the developing or ‘disgraced’ countries of the world, the principle of “Just War” applies. This is why Trump is going to get away with the Saturday invasion of Venezuela and the impending similar exercises in Cuba and Colombia, as the American President hinted.

If the UN wakes up today and gets its mojo back to interrogate Trump on Venezuela, the US can simply hide under the cover of the principle of ‘Just war’ as the invasion of Venezuela and the ‘capture’ of its president satisfied the jus ad bellum requirements of the ‘just cause’, just intention’; ‘just peace’; reasonable chance of success’; and ‘expected benefits outweighing anticipated cost.’. We don’t need a seer to predict that many drug-friendly leaders across the globe will think twice before making America their ‘depots.’ Trump took the American oath of office to protect American interests. This is why there has been no serious condemnation of the invasion in the US today.

The invasion of Venezuela is a lesson for third-world countries. The argument that Trump took that decision because of the last Venezuelan election and economic interest is noble in my opinion. That is what he was elected to do: protect America and its interests world over.

In Africa, in general, and in Nigeria in particular, let our leaders learn to develop our lands. Let those saddled with the responsibilities of paddling our canoes do so with utmost patriotism. And more importantly, let those who want to lord it over us do so through free and fair elections. Otherwise, we will all clap and celebrate should Trump decide to ‘capture’ and ship all undesirable elements with questionable character to America for trial. Venezuelans set the precedent on Saturday when they trooped to the streets in jubilation at the news of the removal of Maduro!1

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Oyo Traditional Ruler Suspended Over Alleged Illegal Mining

Published

21 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Editor

The Oyo State Government has suspended the Sobaloju of Ofiki, Chief Jacob Sobaloju, following allegations linking him to illegal mining activities and breaches of Executive Order 001/2023, which governs mining operations within the state.

The state government said the action was taken to protect the public interest and preserve government-gazetted assets.

In a suspension letter issued by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters and signed by the Director of Chieftaincy Matters, Mr Olajire A.M., the traditional ruler was accused of contravening the executive order and forest reserve regulations by allegedly issuing consent letters to mining firms without lawful authorisation.

The letter further alleged that Chief Sobaloju permitted mining activities within government-reserved forest areas and facilitated unauthorised mining operations, actions said to be in violation of extant laws and regulations.

According to the ministry, the monarch was suspended from the palace of the Onitọ of Ito with effect from Monday, January 5, 2026, pending the outcome of investigations.

The suspension was described as a precautionary step to ensure an unhindered and credible investigation process.

The correspondence, titled “Re: Complaint against Chief Sobaloju of Ofiki for violation of State Executive Order, Forest Reserve Regulations and encouraging trespassing of government gazetted assets,” stated that the allegations bordered on violations of Executive Order 001/2023 and unlawful encroachment on state-owned assets.

Chief Sobaloju was also directed to immediately cease all mining-related activities, including the issuance of consent letters, avoid interference with the investigation, and make himself available to investigators whenever required.

The Oyo State Government reaffirmed its zero-tolerance stance on illegal mining and related infractions, warning that any individual found culpable would be sanctioned in line with the law.