A Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, Kwara State has sentenced a 29-year-old Chinese national, identified as Gang Deng, to five years in prison over offences bordering on illegal mining and possession of minerals without lawful authority.
Deng, who was arrested in September 2022, was arraigned before the court by operatives of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He was arraigned alongside Sinuo Xinyang Nigeria on offences bordering on illegal possession of solid minerals.
According to the anti-graft agency, the convict was found with a truckload of minerals suspected to be lepidolite.
“That you, Sinuo Xinyang Nigeria Ltd and Gang Deng, sometime in the month of September 2022 at Share, along Tsaragi Road in Edu local government area of Kwara State, within the jurisdiction of the federal high court, without lawful authority purchased mineral to wit, 25 Tons of mineral worth the sum of N2,490,000 conveyed in a DAF Truck, with registered number KLRAD85XCOE603462 and thereby committed an offence, contrary and puni$hable under Section 1 (8) (b) of Miscellaneous Offences Act 1984,” the charge reads in part.
EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, in a statement on Wednesday, October 19, said the Chinese national pleaded guilty to the charge but entered a “not guilty plea” for his company.
Muhammed Sani, the judge, sentenced Deng to five years imprisonment with the option of N1 million fine. He also ordered that the 25 tonnes of the mineral recovered from him be forfeited to the federal government.
