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From Gyang Bere, Jos
Commandant of Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Plateau State, Solomon Olasupo, has arrested and charged to court 150 illegal miners armed with dangerous weapons in Plateau State.
He said the corps had a running battle last week with some illegal miners in Gyoro village, a border settlement between Jos South and Maiyango, in Bassa Local Government Area of the state, leading to the arrest of 20 suspects.
Speaking at the passing out parade of the command’s armed personnel in Jos, Olasupo said: “We have arrested 150 illegal miners in Jos South, Bassa, Barkin-Ladi and Wase local government areas of the state. These miners are illegally armed. From our investigation, some of them are criminals and we had a gun battle with them before their arrest.
“We have charged all of them to court and some, because of intervention from power-from-above, have been released, but we will not rest on our oars to rid the state of illegal mining and pipeline vandalism, particularly now that we have been given the leverage to retrain our personnel on arms use.”
He noted that 7,230 illegal miners were arrested and charged to court in 2016, and most of them were serving jail terms, while others were being tried in court.
Olasupo stated that the NSCDC, in March 2017, arrested and charged to court six men for vandalising petroleum pipelines and electricity transformers in Bassa Local Government Area.
