ILLEGAL MINING: COURT JAILS ILAJU 41
ILLEGAL MINIG: COURT JAILS ILAJU 41
Forty-one persons arrested for allegedly committing illegal
mining activities were arraigned before a Federal High Court in Ibadan, the Oyo
State capital.
The accused persons were arraigned on Thursday before
Justice Uche Agomoh by the Federal Government through the Nigeria Police Force
(NPF).
The defendants were arraigned on a two-count charge
bordering on conspiracy and illegal mining.
All the 41 defendants pleaded guilty to the charge
The forty one illegal miners who were apprehended at Onipanu
Village in Ibadan were sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Justice Agomoh gave the judgment following the conclusion of
the prosecution’s review of the case.
Justice Agomoh pronounced that both counts would run for
three years concurrently.
The Police prosecuting counsel, Mr Michael Ojeah, had told
the court that the forty one defendants, on January 25, 2024, at Onipanu Village
in the Ibadan Judicial Division, conspired with one another to commit felony.
Earlier during the continuation of the prosecution’s review
of the case, Mr Ojeah called Inspector Abiola Awosanmi, who led a team of
security operatives that arrested the defendants as witness to testify before
Justice Agomoh on the facts of the case.
Items recovered from the illegal miners and presented in evidence
by Inspector Awosanmi, include eight headpans, twenty six shovels, twenty
diggers, eleven cutlasses, generator, pumping machine, torchlight, sledge
hammers, pliers, axe, hoes, iron file, twenty grammes of raw gold valued at one
million two hundred and forty eight thousand naira and cash of five hundred
thousand naira.
The defendants’ counsel, Mr Suraj Dambaba did not object to
the evidence presented.
Mr Dambaba had earlier pleaded before Justice Agomoh to
temper justice with mercy as the defendants were first offenders who were
displaced from their village in Zamfara state by bandits where they worked as
labourers.
Justice Agomoh rejected the plea of the defendants’ counsel
stressing that ignorance is not admissible in law.
Mr Dambaba while reacting to the judgment said the law has
taken its due course.
It will be recalled that a sitting monarch, the Onido of
Ido, Muritala Gbolagade Babalola was recently suspended by the Oyo State
government for alleged involvement with illegal mining activities in Ilaju area
of Ido Local Government.
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