The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Mineral Exploitation, Security and Anti-Money Laundering has warned that illegal mining and weak enforcement are turning Nigeria’s mineral wealth into a source of insecurity and revenue loss.

Committee chairman, Sanni Egidi Abdulraheem, said at a High-Level Stakeholders Workshop on Extractive Industry Governance yesterday that Nigeria’s gold, lithium, tin, coal and tantalite deposits should be funding schools and hospitals, but illegal mining, weak enforcement and laundering have widened the gap between mineral wealth and community prosperity.

He said the committee, formed to investigate illegal exploitation nationwide, had already held sittings and issued summons where agencies failed to cooperate. He called on the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, the Mining Cadastre Office, the NSCDC, Mining Marshals, the NFIU and the EFCC to support the probe with licensing data and financial intelligence.

Abdulraheem said licensed operators were not targets, but partners, urging state governments and traditional institutions to share credible information from mining communities. He said the committee would recommend legislative, regulatory and security reforms to outlast its tenure.

House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas said the extractive sector should be a second revenue pillar for the country, but illegality and opacity were undermining diversification, fiscal stability and job creation.

He described the workshop as a partnership, not an inquisition.

NSCDC Commandant General Ahmed Abubakar Audi, represented by ACC Attah John Onoja, called for a special court to fast-track prosecution of illegal mining offenders. He said the Mining Marshals had arrested over 671 suspects since 2024, with 397 already charged.

Operations, he said, had driven a 337 per cent rise in mining revenue, seeking funding for drones, CCTV, a national mining situation room and more manpower.

Source: The Nation News