The Niger government has inaugurated a task force on illegal mining activities in the state.

Yakubu Garba, acting governor of the state, inaugurated the task force in Minna on Monday and also announced the conditional lifting of the ban on illegal mining in the state.

He said that the terms and reference of the task force would be to monitor, identify, and report illegal mining sites and child labour on mining sites in the state.

Mr Garba added that other terms and references would monitor compliance with the executive order on the suspension of illegal mining and profiling mining companies.

Others were to monitor and report security challenges in mining host communities and identify and report companies not paying revenue and royalties to the state.

He added that the task force was also to identify the types of minerals titles held by companies, determine companies, determine compliance with extant mining laws and examine matters connected to the task.

He said that records had shown that there were 578 registered mining companies and 302 mining cooperative societies, and only 261 out of the number had been profiled by the state ministry of mineral resources.

The acting governor said that profiling the companies and cooperative society would attract local and direct foreign investment derived from comprehensive mineral resources data.

He explained the most incessant attacks on communities were not only about farmers and herders crises, but envisaged that the deposit of mineral resources was part of the attraction of insecurity in communities.

Responding, Abubakar Usman, chairman of the task force and secretary to the Niger government, thanked the governor for the opportunity to serve and pledged to carry out the task diligently.

The committee would be co-chaired by Sabon Yahaya, Niger commissioner for mineral resources, while Mohammed Yunusa, permanent secretary of the ministry, would serve as the secretary.

Other members are the commissioner for Homeland Security, the commissioner of police, the director of SSS, the commandant of NSCDC, 25 council chairmen, secretaries of the eight emirates and representatives of the state assembly, among others.

(NAN)