Dele Alake’s Mining Marshals, One Year On by Zekeri Idakwo Laruba
In a bold, deliberate push to sanitize Nigeria’s mining industry and reclaim its looted wealth, the Federal Government launched one of the most strategic security innovations in recent times—the Mining Marshals.
This elite corps, established in March 2024, is a purposeful creation of the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, under the watch of Dr. Dele Alake, a man whose reformist vision is as daring as it is disruptive.
Nigeria has long struggled with the dark underbelly of illegal mining—an underground economy that fuels insecurity, drains the economy, and leaves communities devastated.
But in what can now be described as a game-changing intervention, the Mining Marshals are taking the fight directly to the heart of the illicit trade. The initiative was not just another announcement that fades with fanfare.
It came fully armed with structure, personnel, coordination, and national urgency. In its first rollout, 2,220 officers from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) were drafted into the outfit and dispatched across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Each state initially received 60 officers, but there is a strategic plan already in motion to upscale this number to 100 per state. This isn’t just a token effort—it is a deliberate security architecture tailored for a sector long neglected by serious enforcement.
At the core of the Marshals’ mission is a stern mandate: to identify, dismantle, and bring to book all illegal mining actors threatening Nigeria’s mineral fortune.
Their assignment is clear—they are to smoke out rogue operators, close illicit minefields, and reinforce lawful mining operations. In doing so, they aim to restore sanity to a sector notorious for theft, violence, and exploitation.
For too long, Nigeria’s solid minerals have been extracted without accountability, exported without tracking, and stolen without consequence. The Mining Marshals are rewriting that story.
What makes the initiative more potent is its inter-agency framework. This is not a one-man army. The Marshals work in synergy with other security outfits including the Police and the Army.
Such collaboration is not just about boots on the ground—it is about intelligent coordination, rapid response, and unified command. Nigeria’s mining belts—often remote, rugged, and heavily infiltrated—require this type of multi-pronged approach.
The government understands that it will take more than bravery; it will take structure. Perhaps one of the most exciting aspects of the Marshals’ operation is their reliance on technology.
This is not a primitive operation relying on muscle alone. These operatives are equipped with modern surveillance equipment—drones that hover above illegal mine sites, satellite images that track movements, and encrypted communication systems that facilitate swift response.
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These tools are already proving useful, although there is growing advocacy among stakeholders for even more sophisticated gadgets to be deployed, particularly in hostile terrains where criminals hide their operations under thick canopies and dangerous routes.
The Marshals’ command structure is anchored within the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, ensuring strategic direction and tight oversight.
With Dr. Alake personally supervising the operation, what emerges is not just another bureaucratic outfit but a results-driven task force. His centralized command model has eliminated confusion, fast-tracked decisions, and enhanced accountability.
It is the type of direct control mechanism that Nigeria’s extractive sector has been missing—a model where security is not reactive but preemptive and well-coordinated.
Leadership is everything in security operations, and in Assistant Commandant of Corps (ACC) Attah John Onoja, the Mining Marshals have found a commander with steel and strategy.
He is charged with nationwide coordination, policy interpretation, and on-the-ground tactical implementation. From coordinating arrests to executing search-and-seizure orders, Onoja’s leadership is already leaving footprints across Nigeria’s mining zones.
The Marshals did not come to merely occupy space—they came to deliver results. Since deployment, they have arrested over 200 suspects involved in illegal mining activities and initiated 133 prosecutions.
These are not abstract statistics. These arrests have disrupted dangerous syndicates, discouraged would-be offenders, and revived investor confidence in regions where mining used to be synonymous with lawlessness.
There is a visible shift: mining corridors once dominated by criminals now feel the heat of the law. This transformation has far-reaching economic implications. With the chokehold on illegal mining tightening, Nigeria is gradually reaping the dividends.
Legal operators now find the environment more predictable and safe, and foreign investors are showing renewed interest.
What the Marshals are creating is not just a secured mining landscape, but a rebranded extractive sector—one that finally speaks the language of regulation, accountability, and value addition.
In many ways, the Mining Marshals symbolize a turning point. They represent what is possible when vision meets action, and when enforcement is backed by the political will to confront long-standing rot.
As they continue to build momentum, the hope is that they will not just chase away illegal miners but also inspire a broader culture of order, patriotism, and transparency in Nigeria’s natural resource management.
The gold, the lithium, the bitumen, the gems—Nigeria’s soil is rich. Now, with the Mining Marshals on watch, the country can finally dare to dream of a future where that richness is not stolen, but shared.
Zekeri Idakwo Laruba is the Assistant Editor PRNigeria and Economic confidential. [email protected]
