Zamfara: S/S Govs To Take Position On Liquid Gold

By Chuks Ekpeneru

South-South Governors are set to approach the Federal Government to resolve the controversy that followed control of gold deposits by the Zamfara State Government.

The Zamfara State Government had established a gold reserve beginning with 31 kilogrammes of processed gold. There was also plan by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to purchase gold worth N5 billion from Zamfara State Government.

Speaking on the position of his colleagues, Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, maintained that it was illegal for Zamfara State to control it’s gold resources while the South-South is unable to control its own resources of liquid gold.

Speaking at the 2020 quarterly media interaction in Asaba, he said the South -South governors would have no option than to assume control of oil and gas in their states if Zamfara insists on controlling their gold.

According to him, “South-South governors before now have been talking about the need for restructuring and need for resource control, obviously we are on that because we feel there is the need to restructure not only the country, but the management of resources.

“But as at today, there are acts in the National Assembly that guide the issue of oil production and with the solid minerals, those are not covered in these acts and obviously, this is already a sore point in our nation’s governance system and we hope to express this very strongly during the meeting taking place in Portharcourt on Friday.

“We cannot apply laws in our nation to the point that it becomes discriminatory because if people are allowed to process for their solid minerals, they should also be allowed to do same for their oil. So we are going to be very hard and try to make our voice as strong as possible during the meeting.

“I believe that at some point in time, these discriminatory tendencies will have to be revisited in our nation at some point in time.”

Speaking on the demands of oil bearing communities in the state to manage the 13 percent derivation accrued to them, the governor said: “I think it’s important that we put our energy in the right direction, because people have the wrong concepts on what needs to be done.

“Take a look at Delta State for instance, there are 20 or 21 LGAs that are oil producing, if every community tries to control its own, am sure that the crisis and battles that will come out of it will be beyond our control.

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