*Photo: Dr Dele Alake, Minister of Solid Minerals Development(left) *
With the Mining Marshals marking one year in existence on Friday 21st March 2025, 327 suspected illegal miners have been arrested within the period.
The Mining Marshals, which is a force specially created to secure mining sites in the country, also recovered a total of 98 sites from illegal miners.
Briefing journalists in Abuja in commemoration of the one year existence of the Mining Marshals , the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake, also disclosed that the Mining Marshals were deployed in the last one year to address the menace of illegal mining in the country with a view to boosting government revenue from the sector.
Dr. Alake disclosed that the Mining Marshals have also identified 457 suspected illegal mining sites due to improved intelligence gathering.
Commending the successes recorded by the mining marshals within one years, he promised that their scope will be expanded to increase from covering only 10 states in the country to the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
He said “I want to congratulate you for the very good work that you have done in this last one year. We are very impressed with your performance this year. And this gives us the confidence to believe that you are going to do more.
“When you are successful in what you do, then higher authority will be more confident to give you more responsibility.
“The purpose of creating and establishing you last year has been displayed. You have succeeded in addressing several illegal offenders, growing into hundreds.
“You have succeeded in bringing some into the courts for persecution, and in fact, ensuring conviction.
“Because you are one year today, starting another new year tomorrow. And I want to assure you that those things that you need, for efficiency of your operations, like logistic support, arms, money, everything, and all other things that you must need, we will provide for you. And that is to ensure that your job will be made easier.” he stated
Stressing that some high profile suspects including military officials, politicians, traditional rulers and other wealthy Nigerians, he was optimistic that the monster is surmountable looking at the successes achieved by the mining marshals within one year.
“Today’s event is a continuation of what we do, and that is reporting. We are reporting on the activities of the Mining Marshalls in the last one year. Exactly one year ago today, in this premises, we activated the Mining Marshals and unleashed them onto the fields and the forests, with the sole objective of flushing out illegal operators in this sector.
“A core of 2,220 officers have formed the Mining Marshals and increased over time by 450. There are now 2,670 as of today. And this is due to the injection of new recruits of 350 officers and 100 higher level officers during the course of the year.
“There is no doubt that the activation of a new corp to enforce the provisions of the Nigerian Mining and Minerals Law 2007 and the regulations sent shivers down the spine of illegal miners.
“Upon activation of this corp, a clear message was sent to the sector of solid minerals in Nigeria. The activation of this new core as I said, sent a shockwave in the entire mining sector of Nigeria.
Illegal operators in the mining sector of Nigeria were forced to leave the sector.” he stated
The Minister cited the case of over 3,000 illegal miners that were chased out of the North South Extractive Industries Limited in Kogi State by the mining Marshals.
He listed other sites recovered to include Ganan Mining Limited (Kuje, FCT); Jinloys Nigeria Limited in Abia State; Orbit Exploration and Natural Products Limited in Kogi State.
While the marshals’ operations have been somewhat hampered by logistical constraints, Alake reassured that with the increased budgetary allocation for the Ministry in the 2025 fiscal year, such limitations would be addressed
He thanked President Bola Tinubu and the National Assembly for appropriating a budget commensurate with the huge responsibilities of the Ministry in the 2025 Appropriation Act. This funding, he noted, will enable the ministry to fully equip the Mining Marshals, enhance their operational capabilities, and extend their coverage nationwide.
It will be recalled that the Federal Executive Council (FEC) recently approved N2.5bn for the deployment of satellite technology to enhance the security architecture of the mining sector which will consequently aid the operations of the mining marshals.
With the deployment of satellite monitoring, the federal government would be pioneering air and ground coverage for the security of the solid minerals sector – a major milestone in efforts to sanitise the sector.
Assessing the impact of the Mining Marshals over the past one year, the minister asserted that 2,220 corps at inception which has now been scaled up to 2, 670 operatives have raised awareness of the enforcement capacity of the Federal Government to combat illegal mining, establishing considerable deterrence among illegal miners and contributed to substantial increase in revenue, generated from the sector.
The minister also commended the Commandant of the Mining Marshals, John Attah Onoja, for his leadership and dedication, reaffirming the Federal Government’s commitment to further strengthen the corps with better logistics, additional personnel, equipment, and ammunition to decisively eliminate illegal mining.
In his remarks, Onoja expressed gratitude to the minister for his guidance and support, noting that the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) approved by the minister has contributed immensely to the successes recorded over the past 365 days.
He welcomed the federal government’s gesture to boost their operations with improved logistics, emphasising that the corps is motivated to ramp up the battle against illegal mining with a view to sanitizing the mining sector.
