The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has intensified its engagement with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Mining Marshals, as concerns grow over the link between illegal mining, organised crime, and terrorist financing across West Africa and the Sahel. A UNODC delegation, led by Tullio Santini, Chief of the Africa Section of the Terrorism Prevention Branch, conducted a strategic visit to the Mining Marshals Corps (MMC) to explore stronger enforcement partnership.
UNODC Praises Mining Marshals' Enforcement Record
Santini, in a statement made available to Legit.ng, praised the unit's growing enforcement record, pointing to a rise in arrests and prosecutions as evidence of Nigeria's seriousness in confronting the illegal mining trade. The visit underscored the UNODC's commitment to supporting Nigeria's efforts to combat the illicit exploitation of mineral resources, which has been linked to funding terrorist activities.
CONNECT Initiative Introduced at the Meeting
A central part of the discussions was the formal presentation of the UNODC CONNECT Initiative by Robert Haslinger, a law enforcement expert from the Swedish Police. CONNECT, which stands for Coordination through Operational Networks against the Crime-Terrorism Nexus, is designed to help governments and law-enforcement agencies dismantle the financial and operational ties between criminal networks and terrorist groups. Nigeria is among the countries invited to join the initiative ahead of its planned November 2026 launch.
Responding on behalf of NSCDC Commandant General Prof. Ahmed Abubakar Audi, the Mining Marshals commander, Assistant Commandant of Corps John Onoja Attah, welcomed the delegation and described UNODC as a key partner in building the unit's operational strength. He said previous UNODC-backed training had meaningfully improved working relations between the Mining Marshals and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), sharpening both institutions' capacity to run intelligence-led investigations against illegal mining networks.
Mining Marshals Push for Inclusion in CONNECT
Attah used the visit to make a direct case for the Mining Marshals' formal participation in the CONNECT Initiative, arguing that cutting off the financial base of terrorist organisations demands closer attention to how mineral resources are illegally exploited. He said the link between illegal mining and terrorism has become a significant factor in Nigeria's national security calculations, which partly accounts for the Federal Government's ongoing reforms in the mining sector.
He also called for expanded capacity-building covering terrorism-related concepts, regional intelligence sharing, and peer-learning opportunities to help the unit respond to threats tied to illicit mining. UNODC officials, in turn, described the Mining Marshals' institutional structure as a model worth noting within Nigeria's law-enforcement landscape.
Commitments for Future Collaboration
They observed that the unit holds an unusually wide operational mandate, covering intelligence gathering, prevention, arrest, investigation, and prosecution, while also using non-kinetic tools such as community outreach and stakeholder engagement. The meeting closed with an exchange of publications, a group photograph, and fresh commitments from both sides to work together against the growing overlap between resource crime and terrorism across the region.
In an earlier report, the Civil Defence, Correctional, Fire, and Immigration Services Board (CDCFIB) has announced the shortlisted candidates for the computer-based test in the ongoing recruitment for four key paramilitary agencies. Secretary of the Board, retired Major-General Abdulmalik Jubril, confirmed the development in a statement issued on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, in Abuja.
