Bauchi to clamp down on illegal miners, Governor Abubakar warns

Bauchi to clamp down on illegal miners, Governor Abubakar warns

Disturbed by the activities of illegal miners in many parts of Bauchi State and the damage to the environment in the face of dwindling resources available to government for executing projects, Governor Mohammed Abubakar has warned that government will soon start clamping down on illegal miners with a view to making the sector profitable to both the government and the miners.

Represented by his Deputy, Engineer Nuhu Gidado, the governor
who stated this while receiving a delegation from the revenue mobilization, allocation and fiscal commission led by a federal commissioner, Barrister Tukur Batutar, regretted that illegal miners who destroy the environment in many parts of the State through their activities merely work for the foreigners who buy the illegally mined mineral resources at low costs and export them to where they are bought and processed without commensurate profits accruing to Nigeria or the state where they are mined.

The governor observed that minerals are the major alternative the state has a substitute to oil, and pointed out that illegal miners do not know amount of loss the causing the economy of the state and nation as well as the value of the minerals the state is losing to their activities.

He said the State has gone into partnerships with many foreign consultants from China, Hong Kong, Czech Republic and Lebanon that have interest solid minerals that abound in different parts of the State.

Governor Mohammed Abubakar stressed that with the passage into law of the law on public-private-partnership, the State has opened up windows of mutual investment opportunities for prospect investors to exploit, “especially in this sector of solid mineral that has more returns on investments than oil”, and therefore assured that government will partner the Commission in maximizing the exploitation of other sources of non-oil revenues for the State.

He recalled that the Group Managing Director of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC who was recently in the State, said the President has directed the Corporation to resume oil search in the State. The governor expressed confidence that with this sincere renewed effort, Bauchi is sure of becoming an oil producing State.    

Earlier, the federal commissioner, revenue mobilization, allocation and fiscal commission, Barrister Tukur Batutar who noted that Bauchi is one of the states that are heavily endowed with solid minerals, pointed out that because of the poor state of the nation’s economy, the Commission is touring the states to investigate how to tap resources to fund the federation accounts from non-oil sector.
He said the Commission is determined to ascertain the number of solid mineral companies working in the state and identify areas of their operation in while investigating the scale of illegal mining taking place with a view to finding lasting solutions to the problem.

Abubakar Al-Sadique is Press Secretary to His Excellency, the Governor 25/10/2016