Anambra state government through
Operation Clean And Healthy Anambra, OCHA Brigade has apprehended and paraded ten suspected illegal miners who engage in sand mining activity in a government restricted area in Aguleri, Anambra east council of the state.
Angel Network News (ANN) reports that
the suspects whose activities have threatened residents and the environment were apprehended by the enforcement team of OCHA Brigade and paraded at its headquarters in Awka.
Parading the suspects, the Managing Director of OCHA Brigade, Comrade Celestine Anere, revealed that the said area was sealed off months ago because of the illegal mining activities and dredging that have posed serious environmental dangers to the area and wondered why some individuals are bent on flouting government order.
According to Anere, the suspects will be charged to court and warned that all sites sealed must not be trespassed by anyone or group of person as ignorance is not an excuse to the law.
Comrade Anere explained that 10km radius of the restricted area is protected from any sand mining or excavation activities, bemoaning the losses the state has incured from activities of sand miners.
He vowed that those illegal sand miners in any part of the state will not not escape the long arms of the law as his office has been strengthened to arrest and prosecute any one found engaging in the illegal activity.
The enforcement exercise continued with a routine visit to identified mining sites in other parts of Anambra State.
