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.
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.