FG SEALS SAND DREDGING AND MINING COMPANY IN OGUN OVER ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
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Due to unlawful mining activities, the Federal Government has closed down a sand dredging and mining enterprise that was operating in the Obafemi/Owode local government area of Ogun State’s Ilate-Etido Community.
Officers from the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals and Development, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, sealed the corporation on Tuesday. It was owned by an Osun State businessman and operated under the name Ojibas Nigeria Limited.
It was learned that, as of August 12, 2022, the Nigeria Mining Cadastral Office, Abuja, had canceled the mining company’s operational license, which prohibited it from dredging laterite and sand in the neighborhood.
Additionally, it was learned that the business carried on with illicit mining operations employing police officers and soldiers as security cover, even after the mining license was revoked and announced in NMCO, Abuja’s official gazette.
On May 28, 2024, a group of law enforcement officers from Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police Force, Onikan, Lagos, and troops from the 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta, assaulted the company and apprehended suspected illegal miners at a dredging site.
Along with arresting some police officers and soldiers who were acting as cover for the illegal miners, who were led by a Chinese national, the security team also took them to Onikan for questioning.
Before then, a large number of the host community’s citizens had protested the corporation, citing the detrimental effects of the area’s unlawful sand dredging on their farmlands, the ecology, and their means of subsistence.
Chief Shamsideen Ajibawo, the community head of the Ilate-Etido community, praised the Federal Government for enforcing the “stop work order” against the mining company, which was operating illegally in the community, during his speech on Wednesday over the sealing of the business.
He said the community will now experience a huge relief with the sealing action, adding that the mining company, apart from engaging in unauthorized activities, had caused serious environmental degradation to the Ilate-Etido community.
“I personally wrote a series of letters to the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals, Cadastral Mining office, Office of the General of Police, Chief of Naval Staff and Ministry of Mines, Ogun State over the activities of these illegal miners.
“I also discovered when I went to Abuja that the company’s operating licence had been revoked, but the promoter of the company refused to leave the community, boasting that he had acquired all the land in Ilate-Etido and that the indigenes should vacate the land for him. The whole community was however thrown in jubilation as the combined soldiers from the 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta and police operatives from the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, came to arrest the illegal miners and armed police they used to intimidate my people.
“With this latest development by the Federal Mining Office, Abuja, our people will be happy with the sealing of the illegal mining company as the company took them through hell”, Ajibawo stated
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