Mr Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals says some powerful Nigerians are involved in illegal mining and are sponsoring banditry and terrorism in the country.
Alake disclosed this while defending the 2024 budget of the Ministry before the House of Representatives Committee on Solid Minerals at the National Assembly.
“A lot of the banditry and other forms of insecurity associated in the sector are sponsored by illegal miners.
“These illegal miners are not the people who picked gold dust on the ground, no. These are heavy powerful individuals in our country, and they are Nigerians,” he said.
Alake maintained that security challenges in the mining sector were not sponsored by foreigners but by illegal miners sponsored by powerful Nigerians.
Alake explained that the ministry had identified them and is employing kinetic and non-kinetic strategies to tackle the problem, pleaded with the committee to consider the amount budgeted for the ministry in the 2024 budget proposal.
He also said that the host communities where mining activities take place across the country would be engaged to forestall the breakdown of laws and orders.
In a remark, the Chairman of the committee Mr Gaza Gbefwi, observed that the funds appropriated to the sector in the 2024 budget are grossly inadequate as the solid minerals sector remains the last hope of the country.
Mr. Gbefwi stated that the committee has taken proactive measures that would strengthen and reorganize the sector through motions and bills.
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