Governor Ademola Adeleke of Osun State has assured investors that his administration is determined to reform the mining sector in the state.
Adeleke made this known in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Mallam Olawale Rasheed. The Governor explained that the present administration inherited a messed up sector with a deep level of corruption and lack of accountability.
Responding to reports and questions raised by some groups in recent days, Adeleke urged commentators to always avail themselves of publicly available facts about government programmes so as not to be perceived as serving opposition interest.
“On the Osun mining space, we equally remind the public that the government inherited a messed up sector with a deep level of corruption and lack of accountability.
“A reform was launched by the new mining office which is addressing issues of environmental protection,respect for community development, securing of the state mining license and fruitful negotiation to validate Osun shareholding in major mining firms.
“Again, the group failed to acknowledge the ongoing reforms which openly covered environmental protection and which is gradually changing the face of Osun mining sector for the better.
“To learn more about great happenings within the Osun mining sector, we will invite the group to a forthcoming stakeholders’ forum on Osun mining reform”.
Shedding light on his management of state resources including palliative measures initiated by his administration and those supported by the Federal Government, Adeleke said he’s spending far above the two billion naira which is a loan to states given to the states by the federal government.
He said: “In the interest of educated discourse, It may interest the group to note that Osun is spending far above the said two billion naira which is a loan to states and which the Federal Government has even asked the state governments to start refunding.
“It was also false to assert that the Governor has added the N2 billion to the N100 billion infrastructure fund as the state has spent far above the N2 billion in service of the needs and aspirations of her people in this hard time”.
