Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals, issued a caution to governors, emphasizing that they should refrain from prohibiting mining operations within their respective states.
Alake stressed that no governor has the legitimate power to impede mining activities within any state across the country.
These statements were conveyed by the minister during a pre-event press briefing in Abuja ahead of the 8th edition of the annual Nigerian Mining Week 2023, set to take place from the 16th to 18th of October.
According him, “for a State to wake up and say it is regulating mining activities is like a state waking up to ban oil exploration which is downright illegal”.
Alake emphasized that mining is exclusively within the Federal Government’s domain as stipulated by the Constitution, noting that no governor is constitutionally empowered to enact laws, regulations, or oversee operations concerning solid minerals resources.
He said: “The states’ ban on mining activities across the country is a point that is really sore. And it’s a constitutional matter.
“I want to use this opportunity to get to the entire Nigerian public that no state, and I repeat, no state, has the authority to interfere in mining operations. No state has the authority and it is not it’s a no-brainer. It’s a constitutional matter.
“Mining belongs exclusively in the purview of the Federal Government, according to the Constitution. It is in the exclusive legislative list. It is not in the residual. It is not in the concurrent. It’s in the exclusive legislative list. Every item on the exclusive legislative list belongs to the Federal Government.”
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