The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has uncovered 460 illegal mining sites and arrested 387 suspects over a 14-month period, as part of its ongoing crackdown on unregulated mining activities.
Commander of the NSCDC Mining Marshals, Attah Onoja, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He revealed that, of the 460 illegal sites identified, 99 have been successfully recovered and handed back to legitimate mineral title holders.
He said that 146 persons had been charged to court.
“The lawful mineral title holders of these recovered sites have taken possession of their sites for lawful mining activity, thereby generating revenue for the Federal Government,” he said.
He noted that 25 percent of those arrested were foreign nationals, stressing that the law is applied equally regardless of nationality. “Justice takes its course, irrespective of where the suspects come from,” he added.
Onoja also disclosed that the Mining Marshals have carried out 28 “clearance operations” in high-risk areas, including regions plagued by armed banditry, resistance threats, and intelligence reports of potential attacks.
“In carrying out this clearance operation, we ensure to maintain an operational standard that will give you results without necessarily having casualties, either from our own troops or the adversaries,” he said.
The commander emphasized that operations are intelligence-led, relying on surveillance reports, as well as petitions from displaced mineral title or license holders.
“It is the report of our intelligence and surveillance operation that determines the operational strategy to adopt, so while we identify illegal mining sites through intelligence and surveillance operations, and at times through written petitions by displaced mineral title holders or license holders.
“There are some that warrant or demand a clearance operation, especially illegal mining sites that are characterised by banditry or terrains that have no form of government presence.
“Terrains where you get to and you will not even know the country you are in because it is not close to any normal environment; sometimes you access this terrain through motorcycles for hours, and such operations do require diplomacy,” he said.
NSCDC commends FG
Onoja credited much of the progress to the formal inauguration of the Mining Marshals by the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu.
He also acknowledged the role of the NSCDC Commandant-General, Dr. Ahmed Audi, whose leadership, he said, has strengthened the Corps’ capacity to protect mining communities, secure national resources, and reduce environmental degradation caused by illegal mining.
What you should know
The Federal High Court, Jos, Plateau State, on May 16, ordered the deportation of four convicted Chinese: Liang Quin Yong, Wang Huajie, Zhong Jiajing and Long Kechong over their illegal mining of solid minerals in the state.
Justice Dorcas V. Agishi ordered that the convicts be deported from Nigeria and banned from re-entering the country, while forfeiting N134 million recovered from them to the federal government.
