NATIONAL SECURITY AND THE NIGERIAN SOLID MINERAL RESOURCES: ASSESSING ILLEGAL MINING AND THE NIGERIAN LAWS
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Date
2018-05
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Benson Idahosa University Journal of Private and Property Law
Abstract
Abstract
This paper assesses the national security implications of illegal mining of the
solid mineral endowments of Nigeria within a resurging governmental
interest in planning economic development on exploitation of these mineral
deposits. The paper finds that there is wide spread illegal mining in the
country with its attendant economic loss and that in spite of this organised
criminal trend, government's explicit national security policy does not
prioritize illegal mining as a national security concern. It also finds that
extant laws and institutions established for the protection of the solid mineral
deposits of Nigeria are inadequately structured to provide the needed
security coverage for these minerals from illegal mining. The paper
concludes by suggesting the need to upgrade the security status of the crime
of illegal mining so that policies, laws and institutions entrusted with the task
of protecting these national assets can be structured and directed to purging
the nation of this economic crime.
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