FG lauds NSCDC on fight against illegal mining

THE Federal Government has commended the effort of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for living up to its mandate of securing critical national assets and infrastructure in the mining sector of the economy.

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, gave the commendation when he paid a visit on the Commandant-General of the Corps, Mr Muhammadu Gana, at the service headquarters in Abuja.

The minister particularly commended the corps’ effort in tackling illegal mining of mineral resources in Nigeria in spite of the fact that there had been no financial support from his ministry.

Adegbite maintained that besides environmental degradation, the activities of illegal miners in the country had led to loss of trillions of naira in revenue to the Federal Government, saying however, that he was glad that the NSCDC had changed the narrative since taking over the duty of protecting the sector.

He appealed to the commandant-general to continue to provide effective security for the sector and support government’s effort in recovering all unpaid royalties by mineral titleholders across the country.

The NSCDC boss, in his response, thanked the Federal Government through the minister for believing in the corps’ capacity to deliver on its assigned duties, noting that his agency’s achievement in the sector could not have been possible without the support of government.

He said the corps would continue to work in close collaboration with the ministry of Mines and Steel Development towards revamping the sector and curbing illegal mining activities at federal, state, and Local government levels.

Gana stressed that all illegal miners were economic saboteurs and would not be spared the wrath of the law as arrests are being made across the country and convictions secured in many instances.

He promised to give attention to the sector like never before, saying that the corps would be fully involved in the activities of the royalty recovery committee set up by the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

He also urged titleholders with unpaid royalties to do the needful as NSCDC was ready to recover all revenues due to the Federal Government.