The federal government has been urged to lift the ban on mining in Zamfara and other parts of the country blessed with abandoned mineral resources have been stressed.
The call was made by the former minister of aviation, Mr. Femi Fani Kayode at a press conference in Gusau the Zamfara state capital Monday.
According to him, he was in Zamfara for an assessment tour to the communities affected with banditry and other criminality on how best he can advise the appropriate authorities to end the menace.
He said, by lifting the mining activities by the federal government, both wealth and employment opportunities will be created among the teaming unemployed youths as well as enhancing the level of security and peaceful coexistence in the country.
“With the level of abandoned mineral resources Zamfara state blessed with, I believes that the appropriate measures if put in place by the federal and state government for the proper modern processing and exploration, the issue of defending on oil as a source of income will be over and more wealth will be created and insecurity will be reduced to a barest minimum in Zamfara and other states affected with banditry,” Kayode said.
Continuing, he said; “If the ban on mining activities in the country is lifted more private investors will be improved and also the mining activities will be a collaborative effort between the federal and state governments in a regulatory system to improve the economy of this country.”
On the issue of banditry bedevilling the North-west and other states in the North- central, Femi Kayode said there was a need to put all hands together, regardless of political, religious and tribal difference in finding out ways to end the mass killing of innocent lives by the dreaded bandits groups in the zone.
“The level of mass killings and genocide happening in the country is totally under reported, hence the need for media practitioners to always do the needful by reporting all forms of banditry, carnage and genocide appropriately for the prompt response and action by the appropriate authorities to end the trend,” Kayode said.
