Insecurity: Borno govt bans mining activities

• The state government is working on mapping and securing the mining sites with a view to ensuring law, order and safety of lives
• Government working on a governance protocol for the mining sector in the state

The Borno State Government has placed a ban on all mining activities in the state, due to the fragile security situation in the state.

This is contained in a statement issued by the Commissioner for Information and Internal Security, Prof. Usman Tar, in Maiduguri on Friday.

”The state government is working on mapping and securing the mining sites with a view to ensuring law, order and safety of lives.

”Government is also working on a governance protocol for the mining sector in the state,” the commissioner said.

Tar said the state government will soon issue a code of conduct and standard operating procedures for the mining value chain to guide the sector.

He advised all stakeholders in the mining sector in Borno to abide by the ban warning that “any violation will attract the wrath of the law.”

The development is coming same week the Federal Government said no Nigerian state government has any constitutional right to ban mining activities.

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake disclosed this at the 2nd pre-press briefing on the 8th edition of the annual Nigeria Mining Week in Abuja.

The minister spoke in reaction to some states signing an executive order to ban mining activities.

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Alake said no state government has the authority to interfere with mining operations in the various states.

He explained that mining activities are constitutional issues and an item in the exclusive legislative list of the federal government.

“State ban on mining activities across the country is a really sore point. And it is a constitutional matter. I want to use this opportunity to get to the Nigerian public that no state, and I repeat, no state has the authority to interfere in mining operations, no state has the authority. It is a constitutional matter,” Mr Alake said.

He said mining is exclusively within the purview of the federal government and, according to the constitution, it is in the exclusive legislative list not in the residual or the concurrent list.