Taraba State Governor, Arc. Darius Dickson Ishaku, has decried the huge financial losses being suffered by states and the Federal Government due to the activities of illegal miners.
Gov Ishaku, who made his feelings known during a visit to the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, said it is regrettable that illegal miners were smiling to the banks every day while both the Federal and State Governments were losing huge sums of money.

Ishaku said mineral resources development was a critical area of attention for his administration and that he had to create a ministry of mineral resources in order for the state to maximise the benefits of its mineral endowments.

He called for urgent steps to be taken by the Federal Government to check the activities of illegal miners so that both the federal and state governments can enjoy the full benefits of their God-given mineral resources.

Ishaku, who said he came on the visit to the ministry to know what his administration was doing right or doing wrong in the implementation of its policy on mineral resources, at the end of the visit, said that he had gained some useful insight into what the Federal Government was doing at its own level.

Speaking during the visit, the Minister urged all the state governors to emulate Gov Ishaku by seeking to update themselves on the developments in the country’s minerals resources sector.

He urged state governments to develop a database on the sector and to also be guided by the Federal Government’s rich stock of data on the minerals sector.

SOURCE:https://brandspurng.com/2020/09/01/taraba-govt-decries-loss-of-revenue-by-states-and-fg-through-activities-of-illegal-miners/