Two arraigned for illegal possession of solid minerals

Two people have been arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ilorin Zonal Command, for offences related to possessing solid minerals without authorization. 

Nura Lawal and Tunde Jimoh, the defendants, were arraigned before Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court located in Ibadan, Oyo State, on a single count. 

Jimoh was the truck's escort, and Lawal was the driver of a vehicle that was purportedly transporting roughly thirty tonnes of different solid minerals.

Their arrest came as a result of an intelligence tip that the EFCC's Ilorin Command had received regarding certain individuals who were mining solid minerals in Kwara and illegally shipping the resulting goods outside the state for commercial use. 

On February 4, 2024, the Commission located the two defendants in the Ogbomoso region of Oyo State and took them into custody.

The charge against the defendants reads: “That you, Nura Lawal and Tunde Jimoh sometime in February 2024 within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, without lawful authority were found in possession of minerals conveyed in a truck with plate number T3815LA contrary to, and punishable under Section 1 (8) (b) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act Cap M17, 1983”

Jimoh entered a not-guilty plea, while Lawal entered a guilty plea. During the defendants' pleas, Mustapha Kaigama, the EFCC's counsel, asked the court to schedule a date for a review of the facts in Lawal's case, where he had pled guilty, and for Jimoh's trial, where he had pleaded not guilty. 

The defendants were thereafter to be remanded at the Nigerian Correctional Centre, Agodi, Ibadan, and the trial in the Jimoh case was to be postponed to June 5, 2024, while the facts in Lawal's case were reviewed.

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