Three Chinese nationals including a community leader are part of 21 illegal miners arrested by security operatives In Matte village in Kwali area council of the FCT.
This was revealed by the FCT commissioner of police, CP Babaji Sunday, in Abuja. According to him, the cleaning exercise operationally codenamed “SafeG-7” comprising security men from Kogi, Niger, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Benue, Plateau states and Federal Capital Territory ( otherwise known as G-7) led to the arrest.
The CP, in a statement by the FCT police command spokesperson, DSP Josephine Adeh, also said activities of criminals within the G-7 region has become a worrisome trend, as such, heads of the respective security agencies in the region decided to embark on a massive raid and cleanup operation in all mapped out hideouts, camps and areas serving as refuges to miscreants.
He said the exercise is intended to further promote confidence building and take the fight to the miscreants in their hideouts at the various boundaries between the FCT and other contingent states, so as to enhance safety and security within and around the states.
According to him, “The team upon the receipt of actionable intelligence, stormed a camp at Azam village, where an illegal mining site about 40 minutes walking distance from the said village was discovered.
“The miners who were said to have established a symbiotic relationship with bandits and kidnappers in the area, engaged the security team in a gun duel and were subsequently overpowered by the superior fire power of the JTF and arrested. The team recorded the successful arrest of about 21 illegal miners on the sites including foreign nationals.
” Majority amongst the arrested suspects were from the various bordering states, confessing to having enjoyed unfettered cooperation with the head of the local community who was immediately taken into custody alongside the arrested suspects.
” The three male Chinese national suspects arrested in connection to the offence will be officially handed over to the Nigeria Immigration Service, with a view of establishing their immigration status in Nigeria.”
The statement added that upon arrest, exhibits recovered included: refined and unrefined gold, two gold weighing scales, charms, 17 mobile phones, four motorcycles, two dane guns, shovels, cutlasses, two pumping machines, one generator, substances suspected to be cannabis, and other forms of hard drugs.