The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Oladele Alake, has called on manufacturers of mine explosives to combat alleged leakages from their factories by tightening the security and logistics of their operations.
Speaking at an emergency meeting with the manufacturers in his office on Friday, January 26, in Abuja, Alake said there was popular outcry against the role of the manufacturers in the easy access of unauthorised persons to explosives and indiscriminate storage across the country.
The minister disclosed this in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori.
Noting that the government was reviewing the system for tracking the movement of explosives from the manufacturers to end-users, the minister urged them to look inwards and fish out workers who might be responsible for illicit sales or manufacturing of explosives.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the three licenced manufacturers of explosives – Solar Nigachem Limited, Intrachem Limited and Dynatrac Limited.
Speaking on behalf of the companies, the Chief Executive Officer of Intrachem Limited and chairman of Association of Commercial Explosives Dealers, Biodun Abu, explained that the manufacturers had complied with the regulations of the government in terms of security surveillance of their operations by deploying close circuit television in their factories and coding the explosives for easy tracking of the manufacturer and the company that ordered for them.
In addition, Abu said manufacturers and their clients obtained approvals for escorts to transport their goods to the end-users, but were unable to verify incidences of possible leakages when it got to the clients.
Introducing the manufacturers earlier, the Director, Mines Inspectorate Department in the Ministry of Solid Minerals, Imam Ganiyu said the explosives manufactured in Nigeria were slurry and needed detonators to explode.
He said although Nigeria banned the use of dynamite for mining operations in 2007, neighbouring countries such as Cameroon and Mali still used the explosives, adding that such explosives might find its way illegally into Nigeria through the borders.
Others at the meeting were Maureen Tiamiyu, A.Muibi, Recall Hegen Ali, (Solar Nigachem Limited); Chidi Opara, Ohio Musa, ( Dynatrac Limited), Engineer Yomi Aluko, Intrachem Limited, Engr Babajide Alatise, (Tuntise Investment Limited) and Special Adviser to the Honourable Minister, Kehinde Bamigbetan.
