The Mining Marshals of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have warned compromised officials allegedly aiding illegal miners against frustrating efforts to sanitise Nigeria’s mining sector, vowing to sustain operations to dismantle illegal mining networks.
According to an official statement signed by Odita Sunday, President of the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria (DECAN), the Commander of the Mining Marshals, Mr John Attah Onoja, gave the warning on Thursday in Abuja when members of the association paid a courtesy visit to his office.
Onoja identified alleged collusion between some compromised officials of institutions and agencies involved in the fight against illegal mining and illegal miners as a major challenge confronting the operation.
“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 compromised officials had resorted to blackmail and petitions against Mining Marshals in attempts to frustrate their operations.
“That is corruption fighting back,” Onoja said, stressing that the fight against illegal mining must be genuine, deliberate and enforced without bias or selectivity.
The commander said the Mining Marshals would remain uncompromising in enforcing mining laws and restoring sanity to the sector, noting that illegal mining had increasingly assumed security dimensions.
He explained that illicit mining was not only an economic and environmental threat but could also serve as a source of funding for banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.
“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?” he said.
Onoja said disrupting illicit financial flows to criminal groups would weaken their operational capacity and make criminality less lucrative.
“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.
He disclosed that the Mining Marshals had adopted an intelligence-led approach involving the identification, arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders to ensure that perpetrators were brought to justice.
Despite limitations in manpower and logistics, Onoja said the operation would continue to maintain a presence across mining communities as part of its deterrence strategy.
He also sought stronger media support for the campaign, particularly from defence correspondents, urging them to promote accurate, responsible and sustained reporting on illegal mining and its security implications.
“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.
Onoja further urged journalists to assess the performance of the Mining Marshals alongside the logistics available to the operation, noting that inadequate resources remained a major constraint.
Earlier, DECAN President, Odita Sunday, said the association recognised the critical security and economic implications of illegal mining and commended the Federal Government and NSCDC for establishing the Mining Marshals.
Odita said illegal mining threatened the environment and national revenue while increasingly posing risks to national security, making effective collaboration among security agencies, government institutions, the media, traditional authorities, mining communities and other stakeholders imperative.
“As defence correspondents, we understand that effective security operations require not only the commitment of security agencies but also responsible and accurate public communication,” he said.
He assured the Mining Marshals that DECAN would give appropriate attention to their activities while ensuring that reports did not compromise operational security or personnel safety.
Odita also urged the command to maintain open communication channels with accredited defence correspondents to prevent misinformation, speculation and inaccurate reports on security operations.
He said timely access to verified information was critical to promoting public understanding of the dangers posed by illegal mining and the measures being taken to combat it.
The DECAN president further called for stronger professional engagement between the association and the Mining Marshals through regular briefings, field visits and other activities aimed at improving mutual understanding.
The Mining Marshals was launched on March 21, 2024, as a specialised NSCDC operation to combat illegal mining and protect Nigeria’s critical mineral resources.
