The Acting Zonal Mines Officer, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, MSMD, North-west Zone, Kaduna State, Engineer Kutman Hosea Ali, has commended the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC on its relentless fight against illegal mining in the zone.
He gave the commendation on Friday, December 15, 2023 at a One-day Sensitisation / Townhall meeting, organized by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake.
According to him, the EFCC has been demonstrating good capabilities in tackling the crime and could be relied upon to sanitize the mining sector completely. “I know their (EFCC) capacity and capabilities because I have had first-hand experience of their professionalism and expertise when I paid a courtesy visit to their command here in Kaduna,” he said. He further stated that with the EFCC, enforcement of regulations and monitoring of stakeholders’ activities in the sector would be better enhanced.
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The meeting, themed: “Mining and Minerals, Community and Social issues in Kaduna State”, was organized for Stakeholders
within the Kafanchan Local Government Area of the state. Ali noted that it was imperative for the EFCC to bring its preventive and sensitization capacity to bear on the ministry’s efforts to sanitize the mining sector, beginning from artisans down to the mining host communities.
At the meeting, EFCC’s officers presented lectures on “Overview of the Activities of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC,” and “The role of EFCC in Combating Illegal Mining in Kaduna State. Speaking on the activities of the Commission, Chief Superintendent of the EFCC, CSE Nana Fatima Abubakar, of the Public Affairs Department of the Zonal Command, identified steps the public can take to identify with the Commission’s anti-corruption fight.
She specifically touched on the need for operators in the mining sector to seek guidance from the Commission’s Special Control Unit against Money Laundering (SCUML). She also highlighted the problem of tax evasion by operators in the sector and the leverage the EFCC’s reporting app, Eagle Eye, can avail users.
On the efforts of the EFCC to combat illegal mining, Binang Eric Ayibi of the Extractive Industry fraud section cited instances of mining fraud cases being prosecuted by the Commission in the zone and disclosed some of the ways fraudulent persons take advantage of the loopholes in the sector to perpetrate fraud. He warned all those with fraudulent intentions to steer clear of the mining sector or risk arrest, prosecution and imprisonment.
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