<\/p>\n
By George Mgbeleke, (Abuja)<\/p>\n
The Senate on Thursday called on the federal government to deploy security agencies to mining communities across the country in order to maintain vigilance around mining areas.<\/p>\n
The call was a sequel to a motion sponsored by Sanni Musa (APC, Niger East) during the plenary.<\/p>\n
According to the Lawmaker, seven persons were rescued and over 30 others died at a collapsed mining site in Galadima Kogo, in Shiroro Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State on Monday.<\/p>\n
He also noted that Niger State Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, Ahmed Yumu, on Wednesday, announced that insecurity and difficult terrain are hindering rescue operations of miners trapped in the site.”<\/p>\n
Senator Musa, while presenting his motion, argued that there is a need to secure the Niger mining site and other mining communities to forestall future occurrence.<\/p>\n
The Niger senator stressed that securing the mining communities with adequate security agencies will reduce illegal mining and its consequences.<\/p>\n
He called on the federal government to investigate the circumstances surrounding the collapse of the mining site in Niger.<\/p>\n
In his prayers senator Musa prayed the senate to observe a minute of silence in honour of the victims of the collapsed mining site.<\/p>\n
He wanted the senate to encourage the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and other relevant agencies of the government to recover remains of the deceased trapped in the collapsed mining site.<\/p>\n
The Lawmaker also asked the senate to mandate its Committee on Solid Minerals to conduct an on the spot assessment of the site to ascertain the cause of the rockslide.<\/p>\n
In their Contributions; Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, lamented the consequences of the illegal mining on the communities and the country’s economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unfortunate that this incident occurred in the first place. This intensifies the need for the government to strengthen the regulation of the solid mineral sector. We all know that the government is doing very well in this regard. Still, it has become a cause of concern that we have a lot of illegal miners who are exploiting the resources that belong to the people of this country without paying what is due to the government.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that is done, the government will be put in a better place to acquire all the necessary equipment and expertise to solve this problem or even stop it from happening.<\/p>\n
\u201cSadly, the government is being short-changed, and people exploit these minerals owned by the people of this country without paying the necessary fees to the government. This is not what is being done in other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to move to make sure that our solid minerals are exploited in line with international best practices and all and sundry should come together to assist the government in its resolve to deal with this matter decisively, making sure that whatever is due to the government should be paid to the coffers of the government and not allowing even foreigners, to come in and exploit these minerals, taking them to their countries without paying the government what is due to it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be up and doing, not only the Solid Minerals ministry but all of us, including the Senate, in trying to see how our solid minerals sector can be operated in line with international best practices and whatever that is supposed to go into the coffers of government goes into the coffers of government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central), condemned the incident and described it as a \u201cvery sad moment\u201d for Nigerians.<\/p>\n
Ningi said illegal mining posed danger to the people.<\/p>\n
Senator Imasuen Bernards (LP, Edo South) urged the government to pay attention to the effect of illegal mining.<\/p>\n
By George Mgbeleke, (Abuja) The Senate on Thursday called on the federal government to deploy security agencies to mining communities across the country in order to maintain vigilance around mining areas. The call was a sequel to a motion sponsored by Sanni Musa (APC, Niger East) during the plenary. According to the Lawmaker, seven […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[129,128,125,36,127],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-economy","category-oil-gas","tag-death","tag-mines","tag-motion","tag-senate","tag-solid-minerals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198\/revisions\/199"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}