By SUNDAY ABBA, Abuja
The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) has said it will collaborate with the Taraba State Government towards bringing the illegal mining activities prevalent in the area to and end.
The permanent secretary, PS, Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Dr Mary Ogbe, disclosed this during courtesy visit by His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Taraba State, Dr Agbu Kefas, to the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.
This was contained in a statement issued Monday, signed by the Head, Press and Public Relations in the ministry, Alaba Balogun.
Ogbe, who was represented by the director, Human Resources Department, Alhaji Suleiman Muhammad Kabir, noted that there was pressing need for the collaboration between the ministry and Taraba State that is rich in mineral resources to bring the incidences of illegal mining in the state under control and it has become an endemic economic crime causing hemorrhage to government’s revenue beside its attendant security problems and festering community clashes thereat.
According to Dr Ogbe, the ministry cannot combat the menace of illegal mining alone, but with robust dialogue between the ministry and Taraba State Government towards an enhanced and sustained effort to eliminate the activities of illegal miners within the ambit of the law.
While lauding the actions of the state government towards preventing breakdown of law and order resulting from illegal mining, the PS commended the proactive security measures already taken by Governor Kefas, stressing that the he should lend necessary assistance to legal miners in the state to boost investor’s confidence.
Responding, the governor condemned the activities of illegal miners in his state whose stock in trade, according to him, is to create communal clashes and flagrant environmental degradation in their quest for illegal exploration of mineral resources in the state.
To curb and eliminate illegal mining activities, Kefas urged the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to open a corridor of communication and effective collaboration with Taraba State government that will process and authenticate licenses issued to investors as well as other documentations for exploration of mineral resources.
This measure, he said, would create an enabling environment for attracting genuine investors into the state to achieve the much desired socio-economic transformation for the state and, by extension, the country.