The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has accused the Nigeria Police Force of obstructing its efforts to prosecute illegal miners in Nasarawa State by intimidating its officers and shielding suspects.
Commander of the NSCDC Mining Marshals, John Onoja Attah, levelled the allegations in a petition to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions.
Attah alleged that operatives from the police’s Force Intelligence Department (FID) fired at NSCDC personnel and forcibly took over a mining site under investigation in a bid to derail legal proceedings.
According to him, the NSCDC had acted on a petition from Capital Apex Synergy Global Limited, leading to the arrest of one Ali Tanko and a group of Chinese nationals on October 25, 2024, at a mining site in Rafin Gabas, Kokona Local Government Area.
The suspects were allegedly involved in illegal mining operations since 2021 and reportedly confessed to the crime both in writing and on video.
Following the arrests, the NSCDC filed two criminal cases at the Federal High Court in Abuja — FHC/ABJ/CR/577/2024 and FHC/ABJ/CR/131/2025 — and deployed personnel to secure the mining site to preserve evidence.
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It said that after military personnel withdrew from the location on March 26, 2025, police operatives allegedly moved in, attacked civil defence officers, and blocked them from carrying out their duties.
“On April 3, NSCDC operatives were reportedly ambushed, shot at, and four of them — Yarima Yunusa, Insp. Hasuruna Lamshi, Insp. Oliver Kutaya, and Raymond Ibrahim — were detained by police.
“No disciplinary action has been taken against the police operatives who fired at us,” Attah stated in the petition.
He also recounted a similar case on February 12, 2025, in Ondo State’s Lege community, where police allegedly attacked NSCDC personnel during an operation targeting illegal gold mining.
“On April 8, 2025, another raid led by CSP Abdulmajeed of the FID resulted in the alleged arrest and assault of four NSCDC officers who were pressured to falsely implicate their commander but refused to cooperate,” he said.
Attah added that rather than support the legal process, police have instead turned their attention to the petitioners, inviting and interrogating Capital Apex Synergy’s officials and securing a court order to bar NSCDC officers from the mining site.
“This is a coordinated effort to sabotage the criminal prosecution of illegal miners and derail justice,” Attah told the Senate panel, urging lawmakers to intervene and uphold the integrity of the anti-illegal mining campaign.