PANDEF Demands Licences For Artisanal Refineries

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has declared as unjust and discriminatory, the purported move by the Federal Government of Nigeria to promote and legalise artisanal solid minerals mining in the country while clamping down on artisanal petroleum refineries in the Niger Delta.
In a statement issued by the PANDEF and signed by its national publicity secretary, Mr. Ken Robinson, the organisation noted with displeasure, the efforts by the Federal Government to promote the solid minerals sector while suppressing artisanal refineries.
“We have followed the various policy pronouncements on the intention of the government to legalize the activities of all those who are mining various solid minerals around the country, without any formal approvals.
“The question which we are asking, therefore, is why the discriminatory treatment against operators of various artisanal refineries in the Niger Delta?” PANDEF stated.
It said it decided to call attention to the discriminatory practice because it has gone on for a long time now, especially after the Summit on Solid Minerals which was co-hosted by the Solid Minerals Development Fund and the African Finance Corporation which took place in Abuja on October 17.
PANDEF recalled that after the programme, it was announced that the fund, which was set up to promote the solid minerals sector, would extend financing interventions to cater to those who were currently operating as illegal miners.
“We have observed that even in the past, illegal mining of solid mineral resources has been given an official nod at the highest levels especially, with the launch of the Presidential Artisanal Gold Mining Development Initiative (PAGMI) in 2020.
“We recall how the immediate past governor of Zamfara State, now minister of Defence, Bello Matawalle, openly visited the Presidential Villa with large nuggets of gold, said to have been produced from his state.
“Now, the federal government has decided to go one step further by apparently declaring full support for the local artisanal and illegal mining of solid minerals in the country,” the statement said.
The apex Niger Delta body however, acknowledged efforts of the Federal Government to expand the national economy as the dependence on oil and gas for the past 60 years has become overbearing and unsustainable. But it said, “It is shocking that this same Federal Government continues to discriminate flagrantly against the people of the Niger Delta as their efforts to develop local technologies are tagged illegal refineries and therefore daily burnt and the operators paraded as high-level criminals.
“Even the local efforts in developing technology, which, even the NNPC has not been able to do are often harassed, bombarded, and destroyed, further damaging the badly polluted and degraded environment of the Region, a typical story of throwing away the baby with the bath water.”
It recalled that when Yemi Osinbajo, was acting president, he had during his tour to the region in 2017, promised that the Federal Government would promote the development of local technology through the conversion of artisanal refineries to legal entities, and make them viable. Such conversion, PANDEF said would expose artisanal refineries to international partnerships and funds as they are to be the foundation of Nigeria’s technological breakthrough in local refining.
“Six years down the line, no specific Fund has been set up for these artisanal refineries. None of them has been legalized and allowed to operate. The operators are being chased about, arrested, and whatever efforts they have made are bombarded and set ablaze by the Nigerian military.
“PANDEF wonders if there are two sets of laws in Nigeria as the Niger Delta people have always been at the receiving end.”
It therefore called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to reverse the inconsistency, “more so, as it is the money from the Niger Delta that is being used to fund the efforts to regularise the activities of illegal miners.”
“President Tinubu, as an acclaimed democrat with a noted track record of fighting for justice from his days in NADECO, must correct this double standard, and not allow the continued subjugation of the Niger Delta. We trust that the Federal Government of Nigeria will take urgent steps to correct this grave injustice.”