KEY POINTS
- The Mining Marshals say Stone Rockers’ Abuja quarry stays shut because it is the crime scene in an active illegal mining prosecution.
- Stone Rockers and its director face trial over alleged mining inside a lease held by Lord’s Career Ventures, with the agency citing coordinate and document evidence.
- The agency denied any financial inducement and said arrested workers could be recharged after some joined protests over the closure.
Nigeria’s Mining Marshals have defended the 13-month closure of the Stone Rockers Nigeria Limited quarry in Abuja, insisting the site remains a crime scene in an active court case and cannot reopen until the matter ends.
The defence followed a petition by Stone Rockers to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and senior officials over the shutdown. Specifically, the company called the closure unlawful and unsupported by any court order. However, the Mining Marshals commander said it sealed the quarry not as a sanction but because the site is the locus criminis, the place where the alleged offence occurred.
A criminal case at the center
According to the commander, Stone Rockers and its director, Kolawole Olaiya, are standing trial over alleged illegal mining inside a mineral title held by Lord’s Career Ventures Nigeria Limited. Moreover, he said the prosecution followed investigations triggered by more than a year of petitions from the complainant.
The ministers of solid minerals and interior, he explained, referred those petitions to the Mining Marshals through the NSCDC for investigation. Furthermore, investigators arrested the defendants at coordinates the agency found to sit within Lord’s Career Ventures’ licensed lease, citing a January 2026 Mining Cadastre Office letter as confirmation.
Agency rejects pressure claims
The commander said documentary evidence, including a disputed August 2025 letter allegedly written on the defendants’ instructions, would go before the court. Consequently, he argued the case rested on substantial evidence beyond the contested coordinates.
Additionally, the agency criticised the defendants for seeking administrative intervention while court proceedings continue. Nevertheless, it insisted petitions against the commander to the ICPC, and claims of financial inducement, would not deter enforcement. Indeed, he said Lord’s Career Ventures provided no funding or logistics for the operation.
On the arrested workers, the agency said prosecutors earlier dropped them after finding they acted for a disclosed employer without clear criminal intent. Still, it disclosed that prosecutors were told to review that decision after some workers joined protests over the closure. Ultimately, the Mining Marshals framed the dispute as a matter for the courts, urging resolution through the judicial process rather than public pressure.
