Personnel of the Ondo State Security Agency Network otherwise known as Amotekun Corps have arrested 14 illegal gold miners in the state.

The suspects, who were paraded at the corps headquarters in Akure, the state capital, were nabbed while mining gold illegally from 50 different locations in Owo Local Government Area.

The corps said the arrest was made possible following a tip-off over the illegal activities of the miners in the forest reserve.

The suspects, who were caught with the efforts of local hunters in the community, are Shuaibu Yahaya, Habbi Usman, Kabiru Waheed, Mohammed Nurudeen, Mohammed Sulaman, Ali Mustapha, Ismaila Wahab, Musa Zeehed and Gabbar Musa. Others are Sule Adamu, Abba Suleman, Usman Kebiru, Yahaya Danladi and Usman Ali Zekeri.

The state Corps Commander, Adetunji Adeleye, said it took his men about four hours to access the location of the illegal mining deep in the forest. Adeleye added that the arrest was part of the crackdown to end criminality across the state.

He said: “The arrest took place at a forest reserve in Owo. It was in the course of the exercise we discovered the illegal mining locations. “We noticed that they have gone far in 50 different locations where they were mining.

Nobody would have believed that Ondo State has this quality of gold until we got to the locations where the gold robbers were living and performing illegal mining.

“Beyond the arrest, the culprits will be prosecuted.” Confessing to the crime, one of the suspects, Kabiru Shuaib, a 30-year-old man from Kebbi State, said he was invited by one Yunisa to mine gold in the state. Shuaib said he had been in the illegal mining activities in the state since 2019.

He said: “I came looking for a job and I was introduced by one of our leaders who ran away. “He brought me to Ondo State for this job because I wanted to make some money. “After digging very deep, we got the black gold and we separated the sand from the gold with a flat sieve with a rug.

The rug will do the separation as we pour the sand on it. “I am the second best in getting the gold as it is a very high quality gold. We only get it out and send it back home to our boss who sells it and later pays us.

“The gold in the land is of very high quality. We get mostly 25 and 20 carats. Sometimes we get 15 carats gold. And we make good money.” (New Telegraph)

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