There are no signs that any of the reforms so far introduced by the Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi is yielding results as number of illegal miners has kept rising across all states that have minable resources.
This is made more manifest as the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Plateau State command, has arrested and charged to court, 150 illegal miners armed with dangerous weapons in Plateau.
Business Hilights gathered that over 7,230 illegal miners were arrested and charged to court in 2016, and most of them are serving jail term, some are still under prosecution while some have been released due to god-fatherism syndrome.
The State Commandant of NSCDC, Solomon Olasupo said the corps had a running battle last week with some illegal miners in Gyoro village, a border between Jos South and Maiyango in Bassa Local Government Areas of the State were 20 persons were arrested with weapons.
He made the revelation during the passing out parade of the Command’s armed trained personnel in Jos.
He said “We have arrested 150 illegal miners in Jos South, Bassa, Barkin-Ladi and Wase Local Government Areas of the State. These miners are illegally armed, from our investigation, some of them are criminals and we had gun battle with most of them before they were arrested”.
“We have charged all of them to court and some because of the power from above have been released, but we will not rest on our oars to rid the state of illegal mining, pipeline vandalization and electricity, particularly now that we have been given the leverage to retrain our personnel on carrying arms.”
