The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake and his defence counterpart, Abubakar Badaru, are putting finishing touches to plans to secure mining areas in the country.
For the second time in less than three weeks, Badaru visited the minister’s office Thursday, where they had a closed door meeting.
Read also: Solid minerals, defence ministries move to secure mining sites
Emerging from the meeting, Badaru said that the parley was in furtherance of collaboration to secure mining sites across the country, reiterating the resolve of the President Bola Tinubu administration to wipe out the activities of illegal miners and attendant banditry.
“The country needs to make huge revenue from mining, but insecurity is bedevilling the industry. That is why the minister is pushing so hard for us to provide serious protection around the mining areas. That is why we discuss always to see how we can protect the mining environment, bring lasting peace to the country, so that mining will flourish and the country will earn the much needed foreign exchangefrom the sector,” the Defence Minister said.
Responding to enquiries about the proposed new security architecture, the Defence Minister restated that plans are underway for clearance operations at flash points as a prelude to the deployment of the specialised mining police.
On timelines for clearance operations, Badaru disclosed that preparations have reached an advanced stage, citing collaboration with the solid minerals ministry to get the data of all mining sites in the country to enable coordinated security operations.
Read also: Alake to Reps: Powerful Nigerians involved in illegal mining, banditry, terrorism
In his remarks, Alake read the riot act, for the umpteenth time, to illegal miners and their sponsors, declaring that their days are numbered, as the Federal Government was committed to bringing the full weight of the law to bear on those that do not desist from the nefarious activities.
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