The Federal Government has taken legal action against suspected illegal miners arrested during a recent crackdown in Kogi and Ondo states in a continued effort to clean up the mining sector.
This was disclosed in a statement by Segun Tomori, the Special Assistant (Media) to the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, on Monday.
Mining Marshals in the Ikah community of Ankpa LGA, Kogi State, carried out the operation codenamed ‘Operation Hayakin Kogo’, leading to the arrest of two Chinese nationals and a Nigerian for engaging in mining activities that violated existing regulations.
In a similar development, the Mining Marshals also stormed an illegal gold mining site in the Ogunlepa, Oluwa Forest Reserve, Odigbo LGA of Ondo State, where four suspects were arrested.
The suspects, caught in the act of illegally mining gold in a Government Reserved Area, confessed during interrogation that they lacked the necessary licenses or authorisation to carry out their operations.
The suspects from both Kogi and Ondo states have since been charged to the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Recall that the 2,570-strong Mining Marshals, specially trained and drawn from the ranks of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, is a brainchild of the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, as part of his seven-point agenda, hinged on sanitising and reforming the mining sector.
The minister reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to eliminating illegal mining in the country by bolstering the operations of the Mining Marshals with the infusion of technology and imminent satellite monitoring of mining sites.
He urged those still involved in illegal activities in the mining sector to turn a new leaf and comply with the relevant sections of the Nigerian Minerals and Mining Act, NNMA, to regularise their operations, stressing that the resolve of the Federal Government to wield the big stick is unflinching.
