Chairman Senate Committee on Solid Minerals Development, Senator Ekong Sampson, has said the 10th Senate will closely monitor and ensure judicious use of the N1 trillion earmarked in the 2025 budget to revive and boost the solid minerals’ sector.
Senator Sampson, representing Akwa Ibom South spoke yesterday while on an oversight to Mining Sites in Jos, Plateau State.
Sampson, who spoke through his deputy, Senator Mustapha Khabeeb, expressed the determination of the 10th Senate to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration’s drive to revitalise the solid minerals’ sector in Nigeria to boost economic development.
Speaking at the Palace of the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, during a courtesy call on the traditional ruler, he said Jos occupies a pride of place in the solid minerals’ sector and called on traditional rulers to check the activities unlicensed miners who have been exploiting the sector at the expense of licensed operators.
He pledged the Senate’s determination to assist the president to achieve the objective.
On his part, the Gbong Gwom Jos, told the committee that insecurity has continued grow due to illegal mining activities.
He revealed that young Nigerians in the state are being killed in the mining pits while institutions and other residential buildings are being threatened due to devastating mining activities.
The traditional ruler noted sadly that the hike in foodstuffs in the state was as a result of increasing illegal mining activities, and pointed out that the decline in school enrollment in the state was also due to mining activities.
The royal father revealed that, it was the reason the state government activated the Executive Order 001, which has temporarily suspended mining activities in the state.
He however revealed that some persons haven’t stopped mining, in spite of the order.
The Gbong Gwom Jos called on the Senate Committee to insist that the Minister of Solid Mineral’s Development to do the needful in regulating mining activities in Nigeria.
Also, the Chairman, Mining Association of Nigeria, Plateau State Chapter, Musa Paul Gindiri, has urged the Nigerian Senate to prevail on the Federal Government to relinquish powers of mining activities to state governments.
He also suggested the removal of mining from the exclusive list of the Federal Government for flexibility.
