The Federal Government has bought and deployed eight operational gun trucks to boost the operational capacity of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals to increase the crackdown on illegal mining activities in the country.
Babalawe Afolabi, Assistant Commandant of Corps and National Public Relations Officer, NSCDC National Headquarters Abuja, in a statement, said the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, said once budgetary provisions are secured, more of state-of-the-art technological equipment and armoured vehicles would be provided.
Flanked by the envoy of the Minister of Interior, Major General Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.), Alake said he was satisfied with the record of the unit.
Within two years of the existence of the Mining Marshals, the agency has apprehended over 300 illicit miners, prosecuted over 150 suspects and gained multiple convictions involving local and foreign nationals,” he said.
The minister said the Mining Marshals, a special unit of the NSCDC, had played a vital role in improving Nigeria’s non-oil revenue and diversifying the economy away from oil.
Alake strongly criticised the attempt by illegal miners and their collaborators to thwart the ongoing national operations, labelling them as “saboteurs” and “enemies of the state” who would be dealt with to the full extent of the law.
Also addressing at the ceremony, the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who was represented by Major General Abdulmalik Jibrin (retd.) of the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB), praised the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development for its support.
He stressed that the cooperation has helped protect the nation’s resource deposits and vowed the full support of the Interior Ministry for further training, higher financing and more weaponry.
In his welcome message earlier, the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Ahmed Abubakar Audi, represented by the Deputy Commandant General in charge of Technical Services, DCG Zakari Ibrahim Ningi, called the ministry’s engagement as innovative and unparalleled.
The Commandant General described illegal mining as a serious menace to the development of the nation assuring that the NSCDC would sustain its robust synergy with the ministry and assured that the recently acquired gun trucks would be put to proper use for their purpose.