Efforts to secure mining fields across Nigeria has a received a boost as
the Ministry of Defence commits to collaborating with the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development in safeguarding them to make the sector realise its goal of contributing substantially to the gross domestic product (GDP) and increase the revenue accruable to the government.
The Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Badaru, and Minister of State, Alhaji Bello Matawalle gave the assurance while fielding questions from newsmen during their courtesy visit in Abuja, a statement issued at the by the head of Press and Public Relations, Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Alaba Balogun, said.
Badaru said: ”The purpose of the visit by the two of us is to discuss how we can provide security in the mining areas; we are working to provide security on the farms, as well as in the mining sector, to make the country earn the much need foreign currency, given that mining sector is critical in the effort to rejuvenate the economy.”
Responding to the initiative of creating mining police by the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, the Minister of Defence lauded the concept, assuring it will receive the necessary boost from the military.
He said, ” we have to clear the territory as military to ensure safety. When the Mining Police come, they can take it up from there and continue to provide security in those mining areas ”.
In his comments, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr Oladele Alake said, “The main essence is to secure our minerals sector. I have been saying it, even to foreign and local investors. That we need to secure our mineral sector, so that the operators both local and foreign can have a free atmosphere to operate, so that we can derive maximum benefits from these God-given resources.
“And I have been saying it that I am working in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence, the paramilitary- military agencies, and all the security architecture that we are reinvigorating.”
