NSCDC commander vows to sustain crackdown on illegal miners

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The Commander of the Mining Marshals, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, John Onoja, has vowed to sustain operations aimed at dismantling illegal mining cartels and disrupting illicit financial flows linked to banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.

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Onoja made this known on Thursday in Abuja during an interaction with journalists.

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He said the mining marshals would remain uncompromising in enforcing mining laws and restoring sanity to the sector, which he said had increasingly assumed security dimensions.

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According to him, illegal mining goes beyond economic and environmental concerns, as proceeds from illicit mining activities could provide funding for criminal and terrorist groups.

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“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.

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He explained that disrupting the flow of illicit funds to criminal groups would weaken their operational capacity and reduce the financial incentives for banditry and terrorism.

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“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 continued.

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Onoja said the Mining Marshals had adopted intelligence-led operations involving the identification, arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders to ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice.

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He added that the command would maintain its presence in mining communities as part of its deterrence strategy, despite challenges relating to manpower and logistics.

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The commander urged the media to support the campaign against illegal mining through accurate, responsible and sustained reporting on the activities of illegal miners and their security implications.

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“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.

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Onoja also urged journalists to assess the performance of the Mining Marshals against the resources available to the operation, noting that inadequate logistics remained a major constraint.

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Earlier, the leader of the team, Odita Sunday, said journalists recognised the critical security and economic implications of illegal mining.

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The Mining Marshals were launched on March 21, 2024, as a specialised NSCDC operation established to combat illegal mining and protect Nigeria’s critical mineral resources.

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