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| Abdullahi Sule |
The governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has said that illegal mining is responsible for the spate of insecurity witnessed in some parts of the state.
He said that the state has already experienced issues with security because of some mining activities.
He added that the state intends to purchase mining licences and requests that the federal government revoke the licence of dormant licences and give it to the state.
Sule said this in Abuja when he paid a courtesy visit to the ministry.
He said, “We are aware of the number of licences you have given to people in Nasarawa State and we are aware of the difficulty that you are having with people actually using their licences.
“We are here to renew and establish the relationship between Nasarawa State and this ministry, which is extremely important. We have already seen some issues with security because of some mining activities happening with those carrying out informal mining activities in our state and these kind of challenges affect the state because we don’t know when some of the license owners were given their licences. We don’t even know who is operating in our state when we are actually the landlord to at least understand who is mining in our state.
“The idea is to be on the same page when it comes to economic activities and employment opportunities that are going to be promoted. We are also interested in requesting for some kind of data base of the owners of some of these licences because we will be able to develop some kind of relationship if we have it.”
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Abdulkadir Mu’azu, informed the governor that 95% of the licences in Nasarawa State are lying dormant.
