Nigeria’s Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah has insisted that capital punishment against illegal miners is the potent way of stopping fleecing of nation’s resources in the mining and solid minerals sector and would never be set aside.
According to the minister, the projected ₦7.3billion in 2022 will be ₦1.1billion higher than ₦6.2billion generated and remitted for 2021.
Read Also: Illegal Miners Are Criminals Undermining Nigeria – Lawan
He said the total budget profile for the ministry and 10 agencies under it for the 2022 fiscal year is ₦23.4billion out of which ₦10.3billion is earmarked for personnel cost, ₦1.7billion for overhead, and ₦11.4billion for capital projects.
The estimates, he explained, is about a billion naira lower than the ₦24.44billion appropriated for the ministry and agencies under it in the outgoing 2021 fiscal year.
The Committee chaired by Senator Tanko Al-Makura (APC Nasarawa South), however, tackled the minister on the projected revenue and the menace of illegal mining in the country.
A member of the committee, Senator Francis Fadahunsi (PDP Osun East) told the minister that the ₦7.3billion revenue projections was not impressive against the backdrop of illegal mining happening in the sector with reckless abandonment.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
