By Michael Nnebife
Operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Anambra State Command, on Tuesday, April 16, at about 1100hrs, acting on credible Intelligence, trailed and arrested two suspects for engaging in illegal mining activities in Anambra State.
The suspects, Madueke Akpuchukwu, aged 53, from Awomama in Oru East Local Government Area of Imo State; and Chimezie Ezenduka, aged 54 of No 4 All Mekus Drive Federal Housing, Onitsha, were apprehended at Igbariam conveying suspected solid mineral (Kaolin) without relevant permit.
The State Commandant of the NSCDC, Anambra State Command, Comdt. Maku Olatunde, while parading the suspects at the State Headquarters on Wednesday, commended the Command’s Mining Marshal Squad, led by ACC Agunwa Osita for acting on the strength of the information to apprehend the economic saboteurs.
According to him, preliminary investigations showed that the 40-ton truck with no registration number was loaded with six hundred bags of Kaolin and covered with tarpaulin to disguise as cement consignment.
Comdt. Maku who gave the value of the solid minerals at twenty million, two hundred and four thousand, four hundred Naira, said it was excavated at a sealed site around Nando and being transported outside the state without waybill or license permitting the suspects to deal in mining.
Continuing, the NSCDC State boss revealed that the activities of illegal miners had been depriving Anambra State, under what he called the Solution focused Administration of Professor Chukwuma Soludo, the much needed revenue to bring the dividends of democracy to Ndi Anambra.
‘NSCDC will continue to check the activities of those engaging in illegal mining across the state. It is not going to be business as usual.
‘The Corps would be unrelenting in discharging its core mandate of checkmating and flushing out illegal miners from the state.
‘They should either relocate from the state or stop immediately before the long hands of the law catch up on them,’ he said.
The NSCDC State Commandant said the suspects would be arraigned at the end of ongoing investigations.
He called on Anambra residents to report illegal mining activities within their domains and continue to share useful information on anyone involved in unlawful mineral related practices and environmental degradation for prompt response.
Mr. Madueke Akpuchukwu, one of the suspects, who pleaded for mercy, in a confessional statement, admitted to being in the business of transporting Kaolin to needed companies for eight years without any certification as a licensed miner.
