No fewer than 13 suspected illegal miners operating in Kakafu village in Pategi local government area of Kwara state have been arrested in joint operations carried out by security agencies.
The suspects were arrested Tuesday during a joint operation carried out by the Ilorin zonal command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in collaboration with the Kwara state command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Federal Mines and Steel Development.
This was contained in a statement issued Wednesday by the spokesperson of the Kwara command of the NSCDC, Olasunkanmi Ayeni.
He listed the names of the arrested suspects as: Buba Mohammed, Yusuf Umar, Surajo Shehu, Abubakar Abdullahi, Salisu Mohammed, Quadri Sulaiman and Nwafor Chinonso.
Others are: Abdullahi Isa, Mustapha Mohammed, Buhari Hassan, Basiru Jafaru, Murtala Jafaru and Jafaru Abdullahi.
Ayeni said the arrest “followed a credible intelligence received by the EFCC over some suspected illegal miners operating in the area.
“Five trucks fully loaded with different brands of solid minerals were recovered from the suspects.
“Preliminary investigations revealed that the suspects were not paying royalties to the federal government as required by law.
“The suspects will soon be charged to court upon the conclusion of the ongoing investigation.
“You may recall that the Ilorin zonal command of the EFCC and NSCDC, Kwara had last Thursday intensified efforts to tackle illegal mining in the state,” he said.
