Four suspected illegal miners have been arrested and detained at the command’s headquarters of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Benin city, Edo state.
The illegal miners were arrested by operatives of the corps and local vigilante in Dangbala community of Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State after series of complaints of influx of illegal foreign miners by members of the community.
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The four men were arrested by operatives of Edo state NSCDC in a farm site at Oketegbe in Damgbala community of Akoko Edo engaging in the mining of gold despite the government of Edo state putting a stop to all mining activities which have posed security threat to the state and it’s environs.
According to the commandant of the corps Udoeyop Aniekam, the activities of illegal miners imported from other states to these communities in Edo state have become worrisome hence the move to intensify surveillance at the mining sites were Ibrahim Haruna, Samson Alfred, Hussein Abubakar and Abubakar Bello were arrested with their tools.
The suspects in their confessions to the crime admitted that it was illegal working at any mining site in the locality saying that it was a means to survive having ended their farming contracts.
Items recovered from the suspects include shovels, diggers, head pans, sieving mats and raw gold.
(Editor: Nkoli Omhoudu)
