Osun arrests three illegal miners, 63 travelling northern youth

No fewer than three local illegal miners and 63 northern youth were arrested on Thursday by the officers of Amotekun corps in Osun.

The miners – Lawal Dauda, Abiodun Agboola and Obafemi Ademola – were arrested at a Kaolin mining site at Kitibi village, in Egbedore Local Government Area of the state.

This newspaper gathered that the southwest security agency, known as Amotekun, also impounded an excavator and a truck on the mining site.

PREMIUM TIMES has reported a series of arrests of illegal miners in the state following an investigative report published in December on how illegal miners carry out their activities in Osun communities with the support of officers of the Nigerian Police Force.

Many of the illegal sites exposed by this newspaper have been busted by Amotekun in the last couple of months.

Our correspondent understands that those arrested on Thursday were handed over to the state Joint Task Force on combating crime on Friday.

63 northern youth

On the same Thursday, the local security outfit intercepted no fewer than 63 northern youths going to Ilesha and Ife axis in Osun for illegal mining activities.

PREMIUM TIMES gathered that they were intercepted at Ikire, Irewole Local Government Area of the state around 3 p.m.

“About 53 of them said they were coming from Zamfara State. They were hidden in a truck when they were intercepted”, the Director of Amotekun, Amitolu Shittu, said.

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Non-essential interstate travel across Nigeria has been banned for about a month due to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the ban, however, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation showed how corrupt security officials across Nigeria still enable interstate travel.

PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the arrested youth in Osun were interrogated by the police at Ikire Divisional Headquarters and Amotekun officers before being escorted back out of the state through Osun/Oyo boundary, along Osogbo/Ogbomosho road.