Police apprehend eight suspected illegal miners in Kwara

Eight alleged illegal miners have been detained by Kwara State police, and three trailer loads of marble stones have been found in the Patigi Local Government Area.

The suspects were detained in the Share, Tsaragi, and Patigi areas of the state on October 30, according to a statement released on Thursday by Okasanmi Ajayi, the state’s police public relations officer.

He claimed that after receiving a petition and a letter addressed to Paul Odama, the state commissioner of police, the arrest was made possible.

The Association of Licenced Miners of Kwara State and residents of Patigi Local Government Area reportedly complained that illegal miners had turned their ancestral lands into a hotbed of illegal mineral resource extraction.

Ajayi pointed out that the situation had led to environmental issues and economic sabotage for both the state and the federal government.

“Based on this petition, a team of Kwara State Police Command’s operatives was dispatched to the area to arrest and if possible, recover and impound any illegally mined minerals in the said area,” the statement read in part.

READ ALSO: JUST IN: Cultists gun down two in Kwara community

“The police team swung into action and on 30/10/2022 at about 02:00hrs the suspects named hereunder were arrested with three trailer loads of suspected marbles illegally mined.”

The suspects are Mohammed Abdulbagi, Alhassan Rabiu, Mohammed Zanihat Idris, Mohammed Abdulbagi, Mohammed Dalhatu Idris, and Abubakar Tasiu.

The PPRO noted that the recovered evidence had been delivered to the state police headquarters and that the suspects had been charged in court following questioning and confessions.

He also said that any acts aimed at sabotaging the economy or endangering the lives, property, or health of state residents would be met with resistance. The police spokesman urged Kwara State residents to work with them to purge the state of all criminal activity.

In other news, Terrorists have used landmines to kill two people in Kaduna State’s Chikun Local Government Area.

On Thursday at around 2:00 pm, the victims’ car struck a landmine that was unmistakably planted by terrorists in Zangon Tofa, a place in the Kabrasha general area of Chikun Local Government Area.

Samuel Aruwan, the Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, claims that the victims were being transported while the incident was taking place.

According to ChannelsTv, the victims were Babajo Alhaji Tanimu and Safiyanu Ibrahim, according to the Commissioner. Nasir El-Rufai, the governor of Kaduna State, has expressed sympathy to the victims’ families for the unfortunate incident.

Governor El-Rufai urged the locals to maintain their composure while he prayed for the victims’ souls to rest. One of the North-West and North-Central states experiencing a string of assaults is Kaduna.

Gunmen have continued to murder a large number of people at random, kidnap them for ransom, and evict a large number of residents from their homes. The attacks have continued despite numerous assurances from the state government and security agencies, and concerns are growing that they could disrupt the upcoming general elections in 2023 if the federal government does nothing to stop the regional security threats.