Impressed by the giant strides recorded by officers and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the mining sector, the federal government has directed the corps to immediately take over the protection of power installations such as transmission lines and towers in the country.
Giving the directive yesterday in Abuja during the passing-out parade of the second batch of the Mining Marshals recently inaugurated by the NSCDC, the minister of interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunjo-Ojo, expressed concern over the incessant vandalism of transmission lines, towers and transformers.
350 personnel were trained in the second batch of the Mining Marshals.
He challenged his counterpart at the Ministry of Power to immediately engage the corps who would in turn create a “Power Rangers Squad” to address the menace by vandals.
Dr Tunjo-Ojo who described the repeated attacks and vandalism of power installations and other Critical National Assets as economic sabotage, said the nefarious acts must be sternly dealt with.
He said, “We will take it sector by sector. We will protect the power sector. We will secure the energy sector. I challenge you to rise up and protect the critical national assets of Nigeria.
“The rate of vandalism and economic sabotage going on in our transmission lines need to be looked into. I will give you the leadership. It is not acceptable to destroy power assets.
Today is an opportunity to solve tomorrow’s problem”.
Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Dele Alake who was represented by his ministry’s permanent secretary, Dr Mary Adah Ogbe, said the revenue in the minerals sector had improved since the introduction of the NSCDC Mining Marshals.
Alake, who warned miners to formalise their operations or face the law, lamented that the illegal operations of miners causes land degradation.
In his welcome address remarks, the Commandant -general of the Corps, Dr Abubakar Ahmed Audi, said the nation’s security, especially the mining sector was threatened by the nefarious activities of illegal miners, bandits, kidnappers, terrorists, amongst others, a situation that had led to a major setback in the development of the country’s very lucrative mining sector which is very critical to the country’s socio-economic development.
Dr Audi stated that , “There is no gainsaying the fact , that Nigeria is blessed with abundance of mineral resources which if properly tapped and managed, could significantly boost Nigeria’s revenue base, which represents another giant stride towards stabilising the economy.
According to him, there is need for a robust policy guideline backed by legislation, for a robust regulatory measures to combat and criminalise illegal mining.
“This measure will no doubt attract and encourage genuine investors (both indigenous and foreign) to the mining industry” he said.
LEADERSHIP recalls that between December 2023 up to date, Nigeria nation recorded six cases of vandalism of power installations which left the nation in blackout.
The power sector again recorded one on December, 21, 2023, which caused the failure of power supply to parts of the North East, namely, Yobe and Borno States.
Just after that, Transmission Company Nigeria (TCN) reported in February 2024 that towers along the Gombe – Damaturu 330kV had been brought down.
Three days later, TCN reported that vandals destroyed its towers 330kV Gwagwalada -Katampe Transmission line.
The destroyed towers affected Gombe, Damaturu, Maiduguri, Yola, Bauchi and Jalingo.
Immediately after fixing the facility, it was destroyed again.
Again, TCN reported that the same Jos-Gombe transformer was destroyed last week, so making the government to make unnecessary expenditure.
