How I was misled to sign consent letter for El-Tahdam Exploration Ltd

In this interview in Abuja on Saturday 26th April 2025, Mr Abdullahi Usman, signatory to the Consent Letter which El-Tahdam Exploration Limited presented to the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) for license says he has no authority to sign the document. He narrates how the Chairman, Yauri EmirateMining Committee, Mr Abdullahi Mai Akwai, allegedly summoned and misled him to sign the Consent Letter.

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He commended the Emirate Council for prompt investigation and disciplinary action taken to restore dignity of the community, while warning operating companies to obtain documents through authorised channels.

Mr Usman, who was suspended while investigations progressed, thanked the emirate authorities for diligently investigating the issue and restoring his office upon discovering that he was misled to sign the controversial document.

Mr Usman, a native of Libata, Yauri Emirate, preferred to respond to questions in Hause language. The information he transmitted was then translated into English and adopted by him.

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He spoke in an interview in Abuja, on Saturday.

Excerpts.

Q: You are in the eye of the storm for signing a Consent Letter which a mining company (El-Tahdam ExplorationLimited) presented to MCO for license, claiming it obtained the consent document from Libata Community. What is your role in this controversy?

A: I want to begin that I am a devout Muslim, and this means that I do my best to live according to the injunctions of Almighty Allah as contained in the Holy Quran. Although I am secretary to the Village Head of Libata Community, I carry out instructions of the Village Head which he sometimes delegates through some members of his council or through whoever he deems fit.

Q: As Secretary to the Village Head, do you have authority to sign Consent Letters?

A: No, I do not have the power to do so.

Q: Who has authority to sign Consent Letters?

A: Only land owners have the power and authority to sign while traditional rules sign as witnesses.

Q: So, why did you sign the Consent Letter that suggests that Libata Community granted consent to El-Tahdam Exploration Limited?

A: That is what I was trying to explain to you.

In Libata, we have a leader, he is the Village Head, but there are also some senior officials through whom the Village Head may give instructions. The Chairman of the Mining Committee of Yauri Emirate is among the senior officials through whom the Emir can delegate responsibility or pass a message. The official is the chairman of Yauri Emirate Mining Committee.

So, on that fateful day, I was summoned alongside some other people by the Chairman of the Mining Committee. We went to meet him. He told us that there is an instruction from above to sign a Consent Letter, and also to append a date. As expected, I am a loyal staff of the emirate and I had no reason to doubt him.

So, we all signed the document. While signing the document, we were instructed to backdate it, and we did because we believed that the instruction was handed down from above.

Trouble started after some days, and we were summoned to Birnin Kebbi. When we got to Birnin Kebbi, a government official alongside members of the Kebbi State House of Assembly questioned us as part of their investigations, and challenged our authority to sign Consent Letter.

The official made it clear to us that the land in respect of which we signed Consent Letter had been granted to a mining company known asThree Crown Mines Limited.

He told us that we acted on behalf of the community, and that we have no authority to do so because we are not the owners of the land, and that nobody instructed or authorised the Mining Committee Chairman to ask us to sign the Consent Letter.

In all sincerity, I am not a landowner, therefore I cannot give land. I can only give what I have. The land in question is not a community land, it belongs to individuals.

We explained to him that we were only being loyal to constituted authority, and that we believed that we were protecting the interest of the emirate. To cut the story short, we were all suspended, including the Chairman of the Mining Committee of Yauri Emirate, and then investigations commenced.

Q: Was your name on the Consent Letter you signed?

A: Yes, my name was on it.

Q: Do you by any means have any prior knowledge that your name will be on the letter?

A: Not at all! I was surprised to find that my name was on it. Moreso, I had thought that the Consent Letter referred to a different land.

Q: What was the outcome of the investigation?

A: The investigations established that everything was planned and executed by the Chairman of Yauri Emirate Mining Committee without the knowledge of the emirate. He was the one who summoned me to sign the Consent Letter. Although, all those involved were initially suspended, but those who were found innocent were restored to their positions after the investigations.

Q: Are you aware that the document you signed was presented to a government office as part of requirements for a mineral licence?

A:Yes. However, it is clear that I was misled to fill and sign the consent form (as land owner) in favor of El-Thadam Exploration Limited, which the company used to apply for license as a result of which Exploration License N0. 45689 was granted to the company. The same consent agreement was also used to obtain Mining Lease.

I became aware of this when another mining company, Three Crown Mines showed that they had been granted consent over the same land. And the Land Owners had earlier given its consent to Three Crown Mines Limited over the land, and endorsed by the community.

Q: So, what are you doing to correct the error?

A: I am now aware that there was no order from above authorising the Chairman of Mining Committee to instruct me to sign the Consent Letter.

I took some steps to inform relevant stakeholders including the Mining Cadastre Office (MCO) that the Consent Letter in possession of El-Thadam should be disregarded because it was signed by an authorized person. I wrote a letter dated 13th August 2024 to the MCO detailing the true position of things.

So, in order to set the record straight, I have sworn an affidavit stating how I was misled by a superior official and I want the public to be aware of this.

I made it clear in the affidavit that it is necessary to set the record straight regarding the consent which I was misled to sign. This information is verifiable even from the suspended Chairman of the Mining Committee. I am sure that he will admit that I acted on his instruction without knowing that he was not authorized to instruct me.

Q: How do you feel about the face-off between two mining investors?

A: I am not happy that there is disagreement between Three Crown mining and El-Thadam Exploration Limited, and I believe that truth will lead to justice. This is why I have recounted all I know about he issue. I have also been part of the efforts of the Yauri Emirate Council to resolve the case amicably even though the case was in court. In respect of theses efforts, I am in Abuja alongside some other stakeholders to provide genuine information on the issues that led to the issuance of the Consent Lettertoward amicable resolution of the issue.

The Committee Chairman will agree that those facts were grossly misrepresented. I stated in the affidavit I swore that I was given the impression that the land in respect of which my consent was sought and obtained, was different from the actual one.

Q: Who are the stakeholders and how have you sensitised them?

A: I have with me copies of the affidavit of facts that I swore to, at the Federal High Court in Kebbi. Together with the some stakeholders from Yauri emirate, we have delivered the document to the stakeholders.

They include the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development (MoSMD); the Director General, Mining Cadsatre Office (MCO); the Inspector General of Police (IGP); the Director General, Department of State Security Service (DSS); The Commandant, Mining Marshalls at the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp; the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

In addition to efforts made at the federal level, I also made efforts at the state level alongside stakeholders including the Yauri Emirate Council. I delivered the same document to the office of His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Kebbi State; the Speaker, Kebbi State House of Assembly;the Hon Commissioner of Police, Kebbi State; Federal Mines Officer, Kebbi State; Mines Environmental Compliance (MEC) Office in Kebbi State; DSS, Kebbi State; Civil Defence, Kebbi State; and the Kebbi State Ministry of Mines.

So, those are some of the efforts I have made together with stakeholders to correct the anomaly, to build peace and harmony and ensure economic development of Yauri emirate.