The House of Representatives on Wednesday mandated its Committee on Environment to interface with relevant Federal Government agencies and parastatals, to avert “impending earthquake in Nigeria.”

The lawmakers also requested that the concerned agencies monitor and ascertain the extent to which mining activities, rock blasting and borehole drilling in Nigeria comply with global best practices.

The call followed a motion brought under matters of urgent public importance by Johnson Oghuma (APC, Edo) on the “urgent need to forestall impending earthquakes in Nigeria.”

Oghuma, in a lead debate on the motion, recalled the recent cases of earth tremors at Mpape and Maitama areas of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, which he said had raised fears of imminent earthquake in Nigeria.

In their separate contributions, Johnson Agbonayinma (APC, Edo) and Abiante Awaji-Inonbek (PDP, Bayelsa) said the incidence of earth tremor in Abuja shows the devastating consequences of indiscriminate mining activities across the country.

The motion was unanimously voted and adopted with a call on Federal Government’s agencies to deploy proactive measures to prevent Nigerians from “impending catastrophe.”

•Text (excluding headline) excerpted from a Daily Trust report