The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has said security agencies would chart modalities for securing Nigeria’s natural resources.
Alake made this disclosure at a news conference, shortly after the meeting of the Presidential Inter-Ministerial Committee on Securing Nigeria’s Natural Resources on Thursday in Abuja.
He said the move was aimed at preventing a recurrence of the Ibadan explosion and to address insecurity in the solid minerals sector.
Recall that President Bola Tinubu inaugurated the committee on January 17 to produce a blueprint for securing Nigeria`s natural resources which consisted of mineral sites, marine economy and forests.
The minister had announced at the end of the committee’s first meeting on January 19, that the committee would be expanded to include key security agencies, adding that the expansion is aimed at producing comprehensive strategies on security and forwarded to the President for appropriate action.
He noted that the security agencies included in the committee would deliberate on strategies for addressing the insecurity due to their expertise in the sector.
“We have deliberated exhaustively and it’s decided that the security agencies that constitute the experts in this particular venture should meet and give us a work plan on execution of that mandate,“ he said.