By Adeyinka Adeniran
Oyo State government on Thursday said it is working on security template that would create security task force to help tackle illegal mining and activities of illegal miners in the state.
According to the going, it won’t be business as usual for illegal miners and those who fetters away the mineral resources of the state without the appropriate government approvals.
The Director General, Oyo State Minerals Development Agency, Biodun Oni gave the hint while addressing the press shortly after a closed door meeting led by the state deputy governor, Bayo Lawal with the relevant stakeholders.
According to Oni, the planned task force will include security agencies, federal government mines officers, local government chairmen, the state anti-crime taskforce codenamed Operation Burst, Amotekun Corps among others.
Oni said “We just came out of a meeting chaired by Deputy Governor, Bayo Lawal on behalf of the Governor. At the end of the meeting, we came up with several conclusions and solutions to the illegal mining activities that has been going on in Oyo state especially between the three local government areas of Olorunsogo, Irepo and Oorelope and the preferred solutions amongst others was that we will set up a task force that will be chaired by my humble self, that will include all the security agencies, everybody is involved.
“All the stakeholders from the Federal government agencies among others. We have Operation Burst, Civil Defence, Amotekun, Director of Zonal Mining offices in Federal ministries, the LGAs are involved as well.
“At the meeting, we also discussed as well that this is not just local to the three local governments alone, this is an holistic effort that we are building on and we have discussed especially the synergy that is important to have between the security agencies. It is not that we don’t have the synergy but we need to improve on it and how we all work together.”
He said the meeting agreed that a two weeks ultimatum be given to develop the framework, template and modes of operations of the task force which is to be present to Governor Seyi Makinde for approval while also factoring the federal government agencies owing to the exclusiveness of mining.
“We understand at the meeting and appreciated the exclusiveness of mining and that’s why we have Zonal mines officers with us, so this is not done outside the purview of what the law says.
“Then, we have a couple of weeks to come with the template of the task force, what they would look like, what the operations would be, and where they would cover. At the end of the day, we agreed on a standard operating procedure that will follow as we go on in making sure we secure our resources in the mining sector and all the minerals that God has given us so that we stop illegal mining activities and illegal miners.
“What message we want to send from the outcome of this meeting is that, those days are gone, those days that our mineral deposit are fettered away without check, authority or permission and the day light robbery that we get from our mineral resources.
“In one of the meetings we were told about how much resources we get and how less we get from our resources. So, we are determined and our Deputy Governor has given us a mandate to come up with a template for a task force that will be approved by the Governor in two weeks and I want to guarantee the public that we are doing all our possible best to make sure we have this illegal mining stopped so that the communities, the state and the country as a whole will benefit from the God given deposits that we have in our backyard.”
