The Commander of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals, ACC John Onoja, has called for urgent measures to disrupt illicit financial flows (IFF), saying this would help curb illegal mining and other forms of criminality in the country.
Onoja made the call while receiving members of the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria (DECAN), led by its President, Sunday Odita, on a courtesy visit to his office in Abuja.
He reaffirmed the commitment of the Mining Marshals to creating a safer and more sustainable mining environment, stressing that cutting off the flow of illicit funds to criminal and terrorist groups was critical to making crime less profitable.
“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.
Onoja noted that illegal mining not only serves as a potential source of funding for criminal and terrorist groups but also poses serious economic and environmental threats to the country.
He said tackling criminality required going beyond the arrest of bandits and kidnappers to investigating the financial networks that sustain their activities.
“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 asked.
The commander explained that, in response to the evolving and increasingly complex nature of crime, the Mining Marshals had adopted intelligence-led operations focused on the identification, arrest, investigation and prosecution of offenders.
According to him, the approach is aimed at ensuring that economic saboteurs do not evade justice, adding that operations would continue across mining communities as part of the Corps’ deterrence strategy.
Onoja, however, acknowledged challenges relating to logistics and manpower, saying these remained significant constraints to the effectiveness of operations.
He also called for stronger collaboration between the Mining Marshals and the media, describing journalists as critical stakeholders in efforts to sanitise the mining sector.
“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.
Onoja appealed for sustained media support as the Corps intensifies efforts to dismantle illegal mining cartels across the country.
He urged journalists to assess the performance of the Mining Marshals within the context of available logistics and operational resources, noting that inadequate funding and other limitations had affected their operations.
“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 claimed.
Earlier, DECAN President Sunday Odita highlighted the security and economic consequences of illegal mining, commending the authorities for establishing the Mining Marshals to tackle the menace.
