The federal government committee on solid minerals and natural resources has included Kogi State commissioner for finance, budget and economic planning, Asiwaju Ashiru Idris as part of the Ajaokuta presidential project implementation team.
This was made public by a visiting team to kogi state, led by the minister of solid minerals, Olalekan Adegbite and the chairman of the committee, Senator Tanko Almakura.
They promised to involve the state government and the people in its drive to revive the mining sector, Ajaokuta, in the state.
The team was received by the deputy governor, Edward Onoja, in Lokoja.
Kogi state boasts of more than twenty different deposited solid mineral still untapped and the state government called on the federal government and well-meaning investors to join hands with it to revive the sector, in line with the country’s efforts to diversify the economy away from oil.
On the Ajaokuta steel company, mines and solid minerals, the minister of mines and steel development, Olamilekan Adegbite said plans are underway to get the complex up and running as soon as possible.
He said a team from Russia will arrive Nigeria to get things going, as soon as ban on international flights is lifted.
He used the opportunity to announce the decision of the federal government to appoint Asiwaju Ashiru Idris as one of the committee members saddled with the responsibility of plotting the Ajaokuta steel company’s revival
The committee members which also include senators from Nigeria’s mineral producing states, later moved to Ajaokuta for an on the spot assessment of the moribund steel complex.
(Editor: Ifeanyi Mark)
