The Federal Government has intensified efforts to secure the natural resources of the country as the presidential inter-ministerial committee held an expanded meeting with service chiefs.
According to the statement signed by Segun Tomori, special assistant on media to Dele Alake, the minister of solid minerals development, the Minister, who chaired the inter-ministerial committee met with the Security Chiefs on Thursday in Abuja.
Last week at last week’s Federal Executive Council (FEC), President Bola Tinubu established an inter-ministerial committee to draw up a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources, including solid minerals, forests, and marine economy. The committee held its maiden meeting last Friday.
Giving highlights of the expanded meeting, Alake said that the committee’s meeting with service chiefs that cut across all security agencies and the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) was a follow-up on the earlier one to get inputs for developing a workable strategy to effectively secure Nigeria’s natural resources, in line with the Presidential mandate.
Alake added: “Today, we have deliberated exhaustively. We have covered all the issues, all the grounds. Certain decisions have been made, and there is going to be another follow-up meeting because the security agencies are going to give us the framework of the execution of our mandate. That has been the crux of today’s deliberations.
“The security agencies, the service chiefs, the NSA’s office and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) are going to form a smaller committee to give us the work, and execution modalities and we will be meeting in another fortnight.”
Restating the position of the federal government on the tragic Ibadan explosion, the minister said that the report of the ongoing forensic investigations by security agencies is being awaited before necessary action is taken.
According to the statement, present at the meeting were Balarabe Abass Lawal, Minister of Environment; Gboyega Oyetola, Marine and Blue Economy Minister; Abubakar Badaru, Defence Minister: Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo, Interior Minister and Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, his Police Affairs (state) counterpart.
Meanwhile, security agencies were represented by Kayode Egbetokun, Inspector-General of Police (IGP); Ahmed Audi, Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); Abdulkadir Abubakar, representatives of Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval Staff, Air-Vice Marshall and Rear Admiral I. Abbas, respectively among others.
