Illegal Dredging: COURT REMANDS OFFENDERS IN CORRECTIONAL CENTER

A Magistrate Court sitting in Eket has remanded some persons in prison for illegal dredging in Akwa Ibom State.

The Court which sat earlier February 15 2021 in the matter between the State government and one Samuel Itang Adiambuk who's also known as West End, ordered that the offender and his accomplices be remanded in the Eket Correctional Center pending when date for the final hearing is fixed.

According to the 2-count charges read by the Court, West End, and others had in December 2020, and February 2021 carried out illegal dredging activities at Ikot Ebok waterside by Qua River in Eket even after series of notice against unauthorized sand dredging was served by the state government through the Ministry of Environment and other agencies.

The Court which quoted extant environmental laws guiding sand dredging, maintained that the popular West End and his cohorts have not only carried out illegal dredging, but has also conspired to commit felony.

The Court ordered that no bail should be granted them.

It could be recalled that the Akwa Ibom State government through the state ministry of Environment, under Sir Charles Udoh, had called for the regularization of sand mining across the state as an avenue for not only protecting the environment, but to also see that the security of the state is not toyed with.

According to the State environment Boss, the only way the people as a state could achieve this, is by regularising sand dredging so that the government knows who dredges, where he dredges, and how he dredges.

With this, he said the government would now be able to distinguish between authorized dredgers and the ones hiding under the canopy of dredging to steer insecurity in the state.

Media Unit,
Ministry of Environment

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