BY Ayodele Oluwafemi
Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals development, has received operatives of the mining marshals recently inaugurated to secure Nigeria’s mining sites.
The mining marshals were led by Abubakar Audi, commandant-general of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
On March 1, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, minister of interior, launched the mining marshals to checkmate illegal mining of solid minerals across the country.
The launch was part of the ceremony to celebrate the International Civil Defense Day at the NSCDC headquarters in Abuja.
The marshals would be supervised by the federal ministry of solid minerals development.
An initial 60 NSCDC personnel would be drawn from each state and the federal capital territory (FCT) to be part of the marshals.
Alake urged the operatives to stop theft and other nefarious activities around the country’s solid minerals sites.
The minister commended Olubunmi-Ojo for working tirelessly towards the creation of the marshals.
“Today’s event of unveiling and formally handing over the specially trained and selected civil defence structure to engage illegal miners and sanitise our mining environment was also part of what we conceived at the inter-ministerial committee chaired by me,” Alake was quoted in a statement by Segun Tomori, his media aide.
“I am very happy to let the public know that from the outset we said, we are going to tackle insecurity in the mining sector and the first batch of the security apparati is what we are launching today.”
On his part, Audi said the marshals will assist the NSCDC in achieving the mandate of protecting national assets and infrastructure.
The commandant-general said the marshals will liaise with mine inspectorate in states for intelligence gathering.
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