The Federal Government has intensified efforts to secure the nation’s natural resources as the presidential inter-ministerial committee held an expanded meeting with security service chiefs.
The inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, met with the security chiefs on Thursday in Abuja.
The PUNCH reports that President Bola Tinubu, at the last Federal Executive Council meeting, established an inter-ministerial committee to draw up a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources, including solid minerals, forests, and marine economy.
A statement by the Special Assistant on Media to Alake, Segun Tomori, said the committee had its maiden meeting last week Friday.
Giving highlights of the meeting, Alake had disclosed that the committee’s meeting with service chiefs and Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) was a follow-up on the earlier one to get inputs for developing a workable strategy to effectively secure Nigeria’s natural resources, in line with the presidential mandate.
“Today, we have deliberated exhaustively. We have covered all the issues, all the grounds. Certain decisions have been made, and there is going to be another follow-up meeting because the security agencies are going to give us the framework of execution of our mandate.
“The security agencies, the service chiefs, NSA’s office, the Inspector-General of Police are going to form a smaller committee to give us the workplan, execution modalities and we will be meeting in another fortnight,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Speaking on the recent Ibadan explosion, Alake stressed that the report of the ongoing forensic investigations by security agencies was being awaited before necessary action could be taken.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abass Lawal; the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Minister, Gboyega Oyetola; the Minister of Defence, Abubakar Badaru: the Interior Minister, Tunji Olubunmi-Ojo and representatives of security chiefs.
