From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Mining Marshals, a security force tasked with safeguarding mining sites across the country, have appealed to Nigerians to support the force to tackle illegal miners.
Assistant Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), who doubles as the Commandant of the Mining Marshals, Attah Onoja, who spoke to select journalists in Abuja, emphasized the commitment of the forces to enforce existing laws and work with other law enforcement agencies to secure mining sites.
He explained that the Marshals are drawn from the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory commands of NSCDC, with primary responsibility to combat illegal mining operations.
“Nigerians should see the Mining Marshals as a Nigerian project, not an individual project, not a project of the Minister of Solid Minerals but a Nigerian project to save the mining sector because the mining sector needs to breathe.
“The Mining Marshals is a critical unit established by the Commandant General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Dr Abubakar Audi.
“The Mining marshals will stop at nothing in ensuring full compliance to extant laws governing mining regulations in Nigeria and whoever is found wanting regardless of position, their affinity the law will take its course and its important Nigerians begin to know that.
“It is a rare privilege to be on national such and we will have to account for this opportunity, so anybody meeting us should know that we coming with t his mindset that we are coming in to save the mining sector,” he said.
Speaking on the idea behind setting up the Marshals, Onoja said “The Mining Marshals came up as a result of a pressing need of Nigeria as a nation to take adequate care of the mining sector and part of the core mandate of the Nigerian Civil and Defence Corps is the protection of critical national assets and infrastructure.
“To this end, there will be no agency that will be better positioned or poised to deliver such assignment or mandate other than NSCDC.”
He further said that the pro-activeness of the NSCDC Commandant General, Abubakar Audi, in a bid to strengthen the role of the corps brought about the Mining Marshals in collaboration with the Ministry Of Solid Minerals Development
“Before now NSCD has been responsible for protecting of national critical assets and infrastructure.
“To have a specialised unit that will meet a pressing demand, talking about deriving revenue from the mining sector, activities of illegal miners Nigeria, the issues of insecurity and the relationship between illegal mining and threats within Nigerian environment came up with the idea of setting up the commandant genera’s transport and Mining Marshals.
“On the 1st of March, it was officially inaugurated by the Honourable Minister of Interior, Olubumi Tunji-Ojo, who marked the occasion of Civil Defence Day in Nigeria.
“Looking at the resolve of the minister of Solid Minerals, Dr Oladele Alake decided that what NSCDC is doing is in tandem with the seven-point agenda of the Ministry of Solid Minerals, the relationship or partnership between NSCDC and Solid Minerals is to achieve the task of illegal mining with the aid of mining police that led to the official unveiling of this particular operation on the 21st of March, 2024.