The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Oyo State, said it caught five people for doing illegal mining in the state. This happened on a Wednesday in Ibadan.
NSCDC boss in Oyo State, Augustine Padonu, shared this when he showed the suspects to everyone.
Padonu said his team found the suspects with two big trucks full of something called lithium powder. Each truck had about 60 tonnes of this powder.
He explained that after checking, they figured out that these trucks came from Ilenla in Kishi town and were heading to Ogere in Ogun State to sell the powder.
Padonu also said these suspects were working at illegal mining places and didn’t have the needed permission to do so. They had no legal document, no royalties paid, nothing at all to show they could do this work.
“On a Friday night, around 9 PM, our smart monitoring team stopped two big DAF trucks at the Ibadan Toll Gate on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway,” Padonu said.
“The trucks were carrying solid minerals, which we think is lithium powder, and they had about 60 tonnes of it,” he added.
Padonu said they will take the suspects to court once they finish their investigations.
He stated that NSCDC in Oyo State will keep working hard to remove bad guys and criminals from the state.
“We ask the people of Oyo State to keep helping NSCDC and other security groups with information. This will help us keep the state safe and orderly,” said Padonu.
He promised that their team would keep protecting the country’s mineral resources and ensure all mining work follows the law.