Mining Marshals Vow to Dismantle Illegal Mining Cartels, Seek Media Support

By Aviashima Toom, Abuja

The Commander of the Mining Marshals of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr John Attah Onoja, has vowed to sustain efforts to dismantle illegal mining cartels and disrupt illicit financial flows allegedly linked to banditry, kidnapping and terrorism.

Onoja made the commitment on Thursday 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 mining sector, which he said had increasingly assumed security dimensions.

According to him, illegal mining constitutes not only an economic and environmental threat but also a potential source of funding 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.

Onoja said disrupting illicit financial flows to criminal groups would weaken their operational capacity and make banditry and terrorism less attractive.

“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 commander explained 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.

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

Onoja urged the media, particularly defence correspondents, to support the fight against illegal mining through accurate, responsible and sustained reporting on the activities and their 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.

He also appealed to journalists to assess the performance of the Mining Marshals in the context of the logistics and resources available to the operation, noting that inadequate resources remained a major constraint.

The commander, however, identified alleged collusion between some compromised officials and illegal miners as a major challenge 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.

Onoja further alleged that some compromised officials had resorted to blackmail and petitions against Mining Marshals in an attempt to frustrate their operations.

“That is corruption fighting back,” he said, stressing that the fight against illegal mining must be genuine, deliberate and enforced without bias or selectivity.

Earlier, the DECAN President, Odita Sunday, said the association recognised the critical security and economic implications of illegal mining and commended the Federal Government and the NSCDC for establishing the Mining Marshals.

Odita said illegal mining posed serious threats to the environment, national revenue and national security, making effective collaboration among security agencies, the media and other stakeholders imperative.

He assured the Mining Marshals that defence correspondents would continue to uphold professionalism, accuracy, fairness and the national interest in reporting security operations.

“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.

Odita pledged that DECAN would give appropriate attention to the activities of the Mining Marshals while ensuring that reports did not compromise operational security or personnel safety.

He also called on the command to maintain open communication channels with accredited defence correspondents to prevent misinformation, speculation and inaccurate reports on security operations.

According to him, timely access to verified information is critical to promoting public understanding of the dangers posed by illegal mining and measures being taken to combat it.

He further advocated stronger professional engagement between DECAN and the Mining Marshals through regular briefings, field visits and other activities aimed at improving mutual understanding.

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.

He said the media would continue to inform, educate and hold institutions accountable while respecting legitimate national security requirements.

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.