Federal Government has launched the Mining Marshal Corps to curb illegal mining activities in the country.
Drafted from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, 2,220 personnel were engaged under the new security architecture according to the Minister of Solid Mineral to Development, Dele Alake, on Thursday March 21.
The initiative followed establishment of an inter-ministerial committee by President Tinubu led by the Solid Minerals minister to deliberate on modalities to produce a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources including solid minerals, forests, and marine economy.
The mining marshals is headquartered at the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, with 60 operatives deployed each to the 36 states and the FCT in the first batch.
Minister Alake said; “Insecurity has bedevilled the mineral sector of the economy and it has combined with other variables to short-change revenue generation. So amongst others, the issue of combating insecurity in this sector is very crucial if we are going to record any success.
“Without the security of the operating environment in the mineral sector, you can’t even talk of increasing the revenue yield. We hope and believe that the minerals will become the revenue saver of the Nigerian economy and we are pursuing the goal of making the mineral sector contribute more than 50 per cent to the gross domestic product and that is our long-term objective.
“Today’s event of launching and formally handing over the civil defence structure to engage illegal miners and sanitise our mining environment was also part of what we conceived at the inter-ministerial committee.”
