The Senator representing Nasarawa South, Mohammed Onawo has said that he is sponsoring a bill to tackle alleged illegal mining by foreigners in the country.
Onawo (PDP-Nasarawa) said this in Abuja while speaking with newsmen on his agenda for his zone.
The lawmaker said that the bill which was listed for first reading was titled “Solid Minerals Development Commission”.
He said :“The bill will be taken for the first time; this bill is to create a solid minerals development commission that will bring about the unification and improvement of solid minerals in Nigeria.
“We are a very rich nation naturally; God has endowed us with almost everything but the way we are harnessing it is what is making our people poor by the day.
“We allow foreigners to come, go to our localities, start mining without regard to the laws of the land and they take away millions on a daily basis.
“They go to our local governments, give our local chiefs 5,000 dollars, 10,000 dollars and they look at it as a lot of money.
“Some of these things should be mined and processed here. When they are mined and processed here, our people are going to be better for it, employment will be created.”
Onawo also said that he would ensure that more federal presence was attracted to Nasarawa state at large.
He said that a dam which is situated in Doma Local Government Area had gone comatose pledging to partner with the Federal Government to revive the dam.
“In the state, we have the second largest dam in Doma Local Government and it has been lying down here since 1988.
“We had talked and talked but there has not been much money that has been put there to become a source of revenue that it is supposed to be.
“It is supposed to be for irrigation; it is supposed to be for water supply. With the crisis in Ukraine, attention is being moved to Nigeria for agricultural products”, he said.
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