Nigeria Security Commander: Cut Off Funding to Terrorists and Bandits to Neutralize Them

The Commander of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals, ACC John Attah Onoja, emphasized that cutting off funding sources for terrorists and bandits is crucial to curbing their activities. He stated that disrupting illicit financial flows weakens criminal groups' operational capacity and makes banditry and terrorism less attractive.

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We Must Cut Sources of Funding to Bandits, Terrorists to Deny Them Freedom of Action

Onoja, speaking during a visit from the Defence Correspondents Association of Nigeria (DECAN), vowed to dismantle illegal mining cartels and disrupt financing linked to banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism. He explained that illegal mining poses not only economic and environmental threats but also serves as a potential funding source for criminal and terrorist groups. "We want to make criminality less lucrative," Onoja said, stressing that this is achievable by disrupting illicit finances.

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How do the people in those forests feed? How do they get money?

The Mining Marshals are employing intelligence-led operations, including arrest, investigation, and prosecution, to ensure perpetrators face justice. Despite limitations in manpower and logistics, they maintain a presence in mining communities as a deterrence strategy. Onoja urged the media to support the fight through accurate and responsible reporting on illegal mining and its security implications.

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We want to make criminality less lucrative. You can only make it less lucrative if the illicit flow of finances to terrorist groups is disrupted.

However, Onoja identified alleged collusion between some compromised officials and illegal miners as a significant challenge hindering efforts to sanitize the sector. He noted that the primary bottleneck is not the number of illegal miners but the involvement of compromised officials from institutions meant to partner in the fight against illegal mining. He also called on journalists to consider the operational constraints, such as inadequate resources, when assessing the Mining Marshals' performance.

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The major bottleneck we face today is not necessarily the number of illegal miners out there, but the number of compromised officials of institutions and agencies that are supposed to be partners in the fight against illegal mining.