The Commander of Nigeria's Mining Marshals, John Onoja Attah, has issued a powerful call for a new, legally defined era of cooperation among the nation's security agencies. He warned that the scale and sophistication of modern threats have surpassed the ability of any single institution to handle them effectively.
Evolving Threats Demand Unified Response
Speaking at the 2025 RazorNews Inter-Agency Cooperation Awards in Lagos on Thursday, Commander Attah painted a stark picture of the current security landscape. He stated that terrorism, organised crime, and economic sabotage have become more agile, technologically advanced, and transnational in nature.
These criminal networks, he explained, now cleverly exploit illegal mining operations, arms trafficking, encrypted cyber tools, and cross-border supply chains. Their goal is to fund and coordinate violent activities, making a seamless, integrated policing approach absolutely essential for national safety.
Safeguarding Nigeria's Mineral Wealth
Attah specifically highlighted the solid minerals sector as a critical economic asset that has been infiltrated by criminal elements for years. He clarified that the core mission of the Mining Marshals, a specialised unit, is to disrupt the financial pipelines where illegal mining enriches these dangerous networks.
"In some regions," Attah noted, "this illicit wealth has even allowed non-state actors to establish and strengthen territorial control." He credited the unit's early successes—such as shutting down unauthorised mining sites and recovering stolen minerals—directly to sustained collaboration with partner agencies.
A Blueprint for Legislated Cooperation
The Commander pointed out a dangerous asymmetry: while criminal groups rapidly adopt drones, encryption, and digital finance, state institutions are hampered by bureaucracy, overlapping duties, and poor real-time intelligence sharing.
To bridge this gap, Attah proposed a concrete solution: enacting formal cooperation frameworks into law. This codification would:
- Standardise how intelligence is shared between agencies.
- Harmonise operational procedures for joint missions.
- Strengthen collaborative investigations.
- Mandate that agencies train together, not in isolation.
He argued that such legal backing would not only improve operational results but also cut wasteful duplication of resources and rebuild public trust, especially during times of tight budgets.
Celebrating and Encouraging Teamwork
Attah praised RazorNews for creating the awards, stating that they foster a culture where institutions value partnership over competition. The honourees, he said, demonstrate the immense power of combining expertise, mandates, and operational strengths.
He concluded with a rallying cry for unity, reminding agencies that the groups driving insecurity are often tightly coordinated by profit, ideology, or opportunism. Attah reaffirmed the Mining Marshals' commitment to working with federal, state, local, and international partners to protect Nigeria's mineral resources and dismantle the economic foundations of violent networks.
The high-profile event was attended by senior security figures, including representatives of the Inspector General of Police and the Minister of Defence, alongside traditional and community leaders.
