Nigerian Government Promises Security on Natural Resources

The Nigerian Government has assured Mining operators of adequate security to secure the country’s national resources.

Minister of Solid Minerals and Development, Dr. Oladele Alake gave the assurance after an expanded meeting with the presidential inter-ministerial committee with service chiefs in his office in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Dr Alake is also the Chairman of an Inter-Ministerial Committee set up by President Bola Tinubu with the mandate of securing Nigeria’s natural resources.

He explained that the meeting serves as a follow-up to the previous meeting held last Friday.

The Minister said; “After that meeting the decision was to expand and to include the Service Chiefs and their representatives, who actually form the critical security act of the country. They are the technical experts to give us the why’s on how to achieve this objective.

“We have deliberated exhaustively we have covered all the issues on ground and certain decisions have been made and there is going to be another follow up meeting from the security agencies are going to give us frame work of execution of our mandate. That has been the crux of today’s deliberations.

“The security agencies, the service chiefs, NSA’s office, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) are going to form a smaller committee to give us the work plan, execution modalities and we will be meeting in another fortnight”. Dr. Alake said.

Speaking on the tragic Ibadan explosion, in Oyo State, South-western part of the country, Dr. Alake emphasised that the report of the ongoing forensic investigations by security agencies is being awaited before necessary action is taken.

Present at the meeting were Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abass lawal; Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Gboyega Oyetola; Defence Minister, Abubakar Badaru: Interior Minister, Hon. Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo and his Police Affairs (state) counterpart, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim.

Security agencies were represented by Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun; Commandant-General of the Nigeria Security, and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Dr. Ahmed Audi; reps of Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval staff, Air-Vice Marshall Abdulkadir Abubakar and Rear Admiral I. Abbas, respectively, amongst.

Oyenike Oyeniyi