By ZAKAA LAZARUS
The Commander of the Mining Marshals of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Mr. John Attah Onoja, has vowed to sustain the crackdown on illegal mining cartels and disrupt illicit financial networks linked to banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.
Onoja gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja when members of the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria, DECAN, led by its President, Mr. Odita Sunday, paid a courtesy visit to his office.
He said the Mining Marshals would remain uncompromising in enforcing mining laws and restoring sanity to the sector, which he noted had assumed national security dimensions.
According to him, illegal mining poses economic, environmental and security threats, and could serve as a funding source for criminal and terrorist groups.
“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.
“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,” Onoja added.
The commander said the Marshals had adopted an intelligence-led approach involving identification, arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders. He added that the operation would maintain presence in mining communities as part of its deterrence strategy, despite challenges of manpower and logistics.
He urged the media, particularly defence correspondents, to support the campaign through accurate and responsible reporting.
“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 stated.
Onoja also appealed to journalists to assess the performance of the Mining Marshals against available resources, noting that inadequate logistics remained a major constraint.
He identified alleged collusion between some compromised officials and illegal miners as the biggest challenge.
“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 alleged.
“That is corruption fighting back,” he said, stressing that the fight must be genuine, deliberate and enforced without bias.
Earlier, DECAN President Odita Sunday said the association recognised the security and economic implications of illegal mining and commended the Federal Government and the NSCDC for establishing the Mining Marshals.
He said illegal mining threatened the environment, national revenue and had become a national security concern, making collaboration among security agencies, the media 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,” Odita said.
He pledged DECAN’s commitment to professional journalism and assured that reports would not compromise operational security or personnel safety. He also called for regular briefings and field visits to strengthen engagement.
Odita stressed that the fight against illegal mining was a collective responsibility involving security agencies, government institutions, the media, traditional authorities, mining communities and other stakeholders.
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.
