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Pix: John Onoja Attah, commander of the mining marshals<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has petitioned the senate over the alleged shooting of its mining marshals by police officers and the obstruction of efforts to prosecute illegal miners arrested in Nasarawa state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the petition addressed to the committee on ethics, privileges and public petitions, John Onoja Attah, commander of the mining marshals, alleged that officers from the force intelligence department (FID) of the police attempted to derail ongoing court cases involving illegal mining operations at Rafin Gabas in Kokona LGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe senate committee is humbly requested to intervene in the police\u2019s deliberate spreading of falsehood and obstruction of prosecution of illegal miners arrested at Rafin Gabas,\u201d the petition reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attah said his team arrested some suspected illegal miners, including one Ali Tanko and several Chinese nationals on 25 October 2024, after receiving a petition from Capital Apex Synergy Global Limited, which claimed that they were mining without a licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey admitted to mining on the site since 2021 without any valid documentation,\u201d he noted in the petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that the suspects\u2019 confessional statements were taken in the presence of their lawyers and recorded on video.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attah said the suspected illegal miners were charged in cases FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/577\/2024 and FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/131\/2025, which are both pending before the federal high court in Abuja.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said the mining marshals were at the site to preserve evidence when soldiers, who were there initially, withdrew on 26 March 2025 upon learning the operations were illegal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHowever, when we returned to the site on 3 April 2025, we found policemen sent by one CSP Abdulmajeed of the FID, who, without any engagement, opened fire on our men,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He identified the officers involved in the shooting as Yarima Yunusa, Hasurana Lamshi, Oliver Kutuya and Raymond Ibrahim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attah added that the officers were arrested and handed over to the police with their rifles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, he lamented that despite an allegation of attempted murder, Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police (IGP), failed to investigate the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis was not the first time the IGP ignored serious allegations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He recalled a similar incident on 12 February 2025 in the Lege community, Ondo state, where policemen allegedly protecting illegal miners shot at his men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEven after handing over the suspects to the police, they were never investigated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He alleged that on 8 April 2025, Abdulmajeed led 30 policemen from FID to the Rafin Gabas site, where they assaulted and arrested four mining marshals \u2014 Salihu Nda Mohammed, Yusuf Attahiru, Sambi Amos Joel and Mustapha Mohammed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey were pressured to implicate me but refused,\u201d Attah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He claimed that the police began a counter-investigation targeting Capital Apex Synergy Global Limited, the original complainant, to frustrate the prosecution of illegal miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cFalse witnesses were recruited, and fake petitions were submitted to discredit us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Attah also alleged that Abdulmajeed orchestrated multiple invitations from the police to tarnish his reputation and derail the court proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKnowing their intentions, I declined to appear and instead submitted a detailed response to the DIG FID,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The commander said he was later shocked to discover that the police sought and obtained a court order to restrain the mining marshals from operating at the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This, he alleged, was to \u201clegitimise\u201d the actions of the illegal miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He called on the senate to investigate the police\u2019s role in the alleged attacks, cover-ups, and efforts to sabotage ongoing prosecutions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Pix: John Onoja Attah, commander of the mining marshals The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has petitioned the senate over the alleged shooting of its mining marshals by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":9763,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pages"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/psmnigeria.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-5.png\")
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