Bauchi state governor, Mohammed Abubakar, has warned that the state government will start clamping down on illegal miners in order to make the sector profitable to both the government and licensed miners.
The governor said this in Bauchi on Tuesday when he received a delegation from the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) led by a federal commissioner, Barrister Tukur Batutar.
Abubakar who was represented by his Deputy, Engineer Nuhu Gidado, lamented 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.
He said that the foreigners in turn export the mineral resources where they are bought and processed without commensurate profits accruing to Nigeria or the state where they are mined.
He said that the state is disturbed by activities of the illegal miners in many parts of Bauchi State and the damage to the environment which he said is detrimental to the state in the face of dwindling resources available to execute projects.
The governor observed that solid minerals are the major alternative available to the state as a substitute to oil revenue from the federation account.
He added that illegal miners do not know the economic loss their activities have brought upon the state and nation as well as the value of the minerals the state is losing.
He informed that the state has gone into partnerships with many foreign consultants from China, Hong Kong, Czech Republic and Lebanon that have interest in solid minerals that abound in different parts of the state.
Abubakar stressed that with the passage 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 maximising the exploitation of other sources of non-oil revenues for the state," he said.
He recalled that the Group Managing Director of the 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.
Responding, the RMAFC official, Barrister Batutar 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, noting that Bauchi is one of the states that are heavily endowed with solid minerals.
He said the commission is determined to ascertain the number of solid mineral companies working in the state and identify areas of their operations while investigating the scale of illegal mining taking place with a view to finding lasting solutions to the problem.
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