The Kwara House of Assembly has called on the state government to be proactive in curbing illegal mining activities.
This is sequel to a motion on notice, captioned ‘Need to Control Prevalence of Illegal Miners in the State’, raised by Saidu Baba (APC/Gwanabe/Gweria/Bani/Adena) during Wednesday’s plenary.
Mr Baba expressed displeasure that the presence of mineral deposits in Baruten, Kaiama and Ifelodun local councils has attracted illegal mining aliens.
He said the presence of illegal miners in any part of the state always comes with attendant security implications, such as drug dealing and consumption, rape, kidnapping and other nefarious activities that are inimical to peaceful coexistence.In their contributions, other lawmakers expressed concern over illegal miners’ activities, saying they constitute a loss of revenue to the government and environmental hazards to Kwara residents.
Reading the resolutions, Speaker Yakubu Salihu urged Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to charge security agencies to be proactive in ending illegal aliens found in Kwara.”
They should also tackle the menace usually associated with the presence of illegal miners, especially kidnapping, so that normalcy is restored in all affected parts of the state,” stated the Kwara parliament.
It added,
“We urge the governor to strengthen and equip the state Mineral Resources and Environmental Management Committee (MIREMCO) to enable it to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently towards revenue generation and curbing criminal activities.”
The lawmakers’ resolution added, ”We urge the governor to collaborate with traditional community and religious leaders on the advocacy for safe and secure society through early reportage of strange movements of people at mineral resources sites within their domains.”
The assembly also received a petition on a land scandal titled ‘Offa Local Government TIC Fraudulent Land Scandal and Untold Silence of the People’ by the lawmaker representing Kaiama-Kemaji-Wajibe constituency, Abdullahi Danbaba.
Mr Danbaba said the people of Offa inaugurated a civil society organisation, Nigeria Citizens Action Group, to put up a petition over the land scandal in Offa.He urged the parliament to look into the petition to get to the root of the matter.
The speaker, after that, referred the petition to the housing and urban development committees to investigate the issue and report back in two weeks.
