Operatives of Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have arrested seven suspects for offences bordering on illegal mining.
The arrests, which followed credible intelligence and days of surveillance was carried out on Friday May 24, 2024 at Ogbomoso in Oyo State.
EFCC’s head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday and named the suspects as Waliyu Abidoye, Abubakar Auwal, Abdulrauf Hakim, Sabiu Usman, Salihu Godwin, Dauda Mohammed and Olalekan Aremu.
At the point of arrest, five truckloads of assorted minerals suspected to be lepidolite, lithium and precious stones, among others, were recovered from the suspects.
The EFCC said investigations revealed that the suspects were not licensed miners and did not have the requisite authority to purchase and possess the minerals as they also not paying royalties to the Federal and States Governments as required by law.
The Commission also arrested two other persons, Faleti Waheed and Noah Olalekan who allegedly offered N1.2million bribe to the operatives to secure the release of one of the sized trucks.
The duo of Waheed and Olalekan allegedly approached the EFCC operatives at the point of arrest and negotiated to give them money to have their seized truck released.
The officers played along and got the suspects arrested at the point of delivering the money.
The sum of N995, 500 was recovered from Waheed who claimed to be a manager at a filling station in Ogbomoso while the sum of N201, 000 was recovered from Olalekan who claimed to be a scavenger.
Oyewale said the suspects will be arraigned in court upon conclusion of ongoing investigations.
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