Order investors back to coal mine sites, Ugwuanyi urges FG

Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state has urged the Federal Government to order investors that were allocated the coal mines in the state back to site.
Ugwuanyi made the appeal on Tuesday in Enugu, when the Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Alhaji Abubakar Bwari, visited him at the Government House.
The governor expressed concern that since the coal mines were privatised many years ago, the investors had yet to start work at the sites to the detriment of the state.
He described the abandonment of the mines by the investors as an economic sabotage.
According to him, the royalties and other revenues that should accrue to the state and host local governments were stalled.
Ugwuanyi said, “Enugu is blessed with coal but we have gained little from it, especially with the winding up of the Coal Corporation.”
He said that the mines had been turned into dens of robbers due to the inactivity of the investors, which described as “ghost investors.”
Earlier, Bwari said that he was in Enugu to attend the conference of Nigerian Society of Mines and Geo-Sciences.
He said that the Federal Government took the issue of mining seriously, pointing out that its diversification initiative would not be successful without the sector.
He said that the Nigerian Society of Mines and Geo-Sciences was undertaking a N14 billion worth of exploration to further enrich its mining data in order to attract investors.
He said that Enugu was renowned for coal and that its exploration would soon be back on stream.
“We have what it takes to make Nigeria great and the time to address the dearth of infrastructure affecting mining is now,” Bwari said.