•Ministers of Defence, Interior, Marine & Blue Economy, others attend maiden meeting

“We are here to deliberate on mainly the issue of security around Nigeria’s natural resources, as directed by the president. The president set up this committee. Solid minerals, marine economy, and forests all constitute Nigeria’s natural resources. So, all the relevant ministers are here to deliberate on how to efficiently and effectively curtail all the atrocious, nefarious activities of either illegal mining, deforestation, or pilfering in the marine economy”.

With these words, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake threw light on the outcome of the maiden meeting of the Inter-ministerial committee on securing Nigeria’s natural resources set up by President Bola Tinubu at Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. He revealed that the Ministers cross-fertilized ideas and brainstormed on modalities of achieving the presidential mandate of coming up with a blueprint for securing the country’s natural resources.

“We will be having another meeting, an expanded one, comprising of all the other critical security agencies with a view to now finalizing strategies and presenting a report to Mr. President”, Alake added.

In his remarks, the Minister of Defence, HE Abubakar Badaru, stressed that the committee will come up with a robust strategy that will culminate in a rejigged security architecture to effectively secure the nation’s forests, blue economy, and solid minerals.

Ministers that graced the meeting include the host, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake; Defence Minister, HE Abubakar Badaru, his interior counterpart, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo; Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, HE Gboyega Oyetola; Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal and Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Suleiman-Ibrahim.

•PHOTO: L-R; Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, Minister of state police affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, Minister of Defence, Alhaji Muhammed Badaru Abubakar MON, mni, Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, HE Adegboyega Oyetola and Minister of Interior Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo during the inter-ministerial security meeting on securing Nigeria’s natural resources as directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Abuja on Jan. 19, 2024.

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