Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele
Alake, has hailed the sentencing of Ansaru commander, Mahmud Usman, to 15 years
imprisonment as a landmark victory in the fight against illegal mining.
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice Emeka Nwite
of the Federal High Court, Abuja, convicted Usman and ordered his remand to
face 31 additional terrorism-related charges.
In a statement issued by his Special Assistant on
Media, Segun Tomori, Alake commended the judiciary for aligning with the
Federal Government’s resolve to crush illegal mining and expose its links to
banditry and terrorism.
“It is gratifying for me that the judiciary is aligned with the ministry’s
objective of zero tolerance for illegal mining. The verdict has finally
established that bandits engage in illegal mining to fund their operations,”
Alake said.
He disclosed that the Ministry of Solid Minerals
Development will closely monitor the ongoing cases against other Ansaru
commanders to draw lessons that would strengthen regulatory capacity in the
sector. He also promised that more stringent measures to curb illegal mining
would soon be announced.
The minister praised the Directorate of State Services
(DSS) for its role in tracking and arresting terror suspects, stressing that
stronger inter-agency collaboration will be pursued to raise the tempo of
surveillance and rid communities of mining-related criminality.
Ansaru, short for Vanguard for the Protection of
Muslims in Black Africa, has been linked to high-profile attacks, including
the raid on the Nigerian Army Wawa Cantonment and the Kuje Prisons jailbreak in
2022.
It will be recalled that in 2024, the ministry
established the Mining Marshals to strengthen security around mining sites and
enforce compliance in the sector.
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