You can’t claim ownership of mineral deposits, FG tells state govts

THE Federal Government yesterday told state governments that they could not control the mineral deposits in their various domains.

Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite, said this at a sensitisation meeting with state commissioners for justice, minerals and environment from the North-Central geopolitical zone.

The issue of resource control had been put in the front burner recently with the unveiling of Zamfara state government’s plan to establish a gold reserve through buying of gold from artisenal miner indigenes.

Reacting to calls for the amendment of the exclusive list section on minerals in the country’s constitution to allow states have participatory roles in mining, the minister said doing so would amount to selfishness and would be detrimental to the nation’ s economic system.

This is following the claim of ownership of the gold deposits in Zamfara by the state government, a development which has generated reactions from Nigerians.

The Deputy Senate President, Ovi Omo-Agege, among other notable Nigerians, has kicked against the move by the Zamfara government to exclusively claim the ownership of the gold in the state.

Omo-Agege, who is from the Delta State, said there is no basis for Zamfara’s claim of ownership when states from the south south are not doing same thing with their natural resources.

Speaking in a similar vein, Adegbite explained that the oil revenue derived from a section of the country was being used for the overall development of Nigeria.

He told the commissioners that as attention was now focusing on the development of the minerals sector for revenue generation, it must be used for the common good of all.

The minister, in a statement issued in Abuja by the mines ministry’s Assistant Director, Press, Timothy Akpoili, stated that royalties and other revenues generated from solid minerals mining were paid into the consolidated fund.

He said the fund was shared in accordance with derivation principle during monthly revenue allocation sharing.