By Emmanuel Nduka
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals says it has intensified their crackdown on illegal mining cartels as part of efforts to disrupt the financial networks allegedly funding banditry, kidnapping and terrorism across the country.
Commander of the Mining Marshals, John Onoja, disclosed this in Abuja during a meeting with members of the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria.
Onoja said the fight against illegal mining had assumed a national security dimension, as criminal elements increasingly exploit the country’s mineral resources to generate funds for their operations.
He explained that rather than focusing solely on apprehending criminals in remote forests, security agencies must also target the sources of funding sustaining their activities.
“It is not necessarily about picking up weapons and fighting bandits or kidnappers. We must ask: how do the people in those forests feed? How do they get money?” Onoja said.
According to him, disrupting the financial pipeline is essential to weakening criminal networks and making illegal activities less profitable.
“We want to make criminality less lucrative. You can only make it less lucrative if the illicit flow of finances to terrorist groups is disrupted,” he said.
The Mining Marshals commander said the NSCDC was deploying intelligence gathering, surveillance, arrests, investigations and prosecution as part of its strategy to dismantle illegal mining operations.
He, however, identified inadequate manpower and logistics as some of the challenges limiting the effectiveness of the Mining Marshals, particularly in covering Nigeria’s vast mining areas.
Onoja also raised concerns over alleged collusion between some compromised officials and illegal mining operators, describing it as one of the major obstacles to efforts to sanitise the sector.
“The major bottleneck we face today is not necessarily the number of illegal miners out there, but the number of compromised officials of institutions and agencies that are supposed to be partners in the fight against illegal mining,” he said.
He alleged that some officials accused of compromising the system had resorted to blackmail and petitions against personnel of the Mining Marshals in an attempt to frustrate enforcement operations.
“That is corruption fighting back,” Onoja said.
He stressed the need for stronger collaboration among security agencies, government institutions, mining communities and the media to effectively tackle illegal mining and its wider security implications.
Onoja particularly urged defence correspondents to continue reporting developments in the sector, saying public awareness and sustained scrutiny were essential to achieving a properly regulated mining industry.
“I do not take your role for granted. The sanitised mining sector of our dream will be achieved through collaboration, and the major stakeholder in that collaboration is the media,” he said.
The renewed crackdown reflects growing concerns over the security implications of illegal mining in Nigeria, particularly allegations that proceeds from illicit mining activities are being used to finance criminal networks operating in remote and mineral-rich communities.
The Mining Marshals said efforts would continue to focus on disrupting these illicit financial channels while bringing illegal operators and those facilitating their activities to justice.
