…blames resource control for EndSARS protests
Alhaji Danladi Pasali, National Coordinator of the Buhari Campaign Organization, has declared that the gold deposits found in Zamfara State belong to Nigeria, and not the state, as has been claimed by the governor.
Pasali was reacting to claims by Zamfara State governor, Bello Matawalle, who has said that the gold deposits belong to the state.
“The gold that is being tapped in Zamfara state constitutionally does not belong to Zamfara state but to Nigeria as a nation” Pasali declared.
He made this declaration while speaking to newsmen in Kano Tuesday evening where he paid a courtesy call on the traditional institution commending its role in containing the recent end SARS crises that led to destructions by hoodlums.
Pasali condemned the Zamfara state governor and called on the federal government to cut him to size to avoid chaos. “We condemn the political behaviour of the Zamfara state governor regarding the gold deposit in the state. As a natural resource, it is even a constitutional matter that such natural resources belong to Nigeria and not to any individual state,” he explained.
There have been media reports that Zamfara has an arrangement to mine the gold deposits and sell.
The Zamfara gold issue has heightened calls for resource control in Nigeria, with states from the Niger Delta region arguing that they have been shortchanged by the federal government.
Under the existing laws, ownership of mineral deposits in Nigeria is vested in the federal government. In the case of oil, the federal government pays 13% derivation to oil-producing states.
States in the Niger Delta have argued that such an arrangement should also apply in the case of Zamfara gold.
“We are calling on the Federal government to call the Zamfara state governor to order and not to allow him go along the unconstitutional path he is treading, and any other state governor that might want to bring chaos as well,” Pasali said.
“We at the Buhari Campaign Organization are condemning him” Pasali declared. Talking about their trip to Kano, Pasali hailed the role of the Kano traditional institution in maintaining peace and order among youths during the recent end SARS protests the led to destruction of lives and property.
“We are in Kano to commend the role played by the traditional institution in making the youth to understand the need for peace and tranquility and staying away from mayhem and wanton destruction of lives and property. “We also used the opportunity to meet with all our Kano state coordinators to remind them of the projects and programs of the president that include empowerment projects, funding of artisans, market women and the rest. “We are raising awareness among our people so that people will key into them and benefit.
“We see the response of the Niger Delta governors in this regard as an agenda of the PDP governors to destabilize the present administration. We know that they are part of the people that funded the EndSARS protests, they are part of the people propagating resource control, any time they are not in government, they pursue agenda that will destabilize the incumbent regime. So to us it is an agenda of the opposition. Because if you look at the whole thing, the governors of the South-South and the Zamfara state governor are all from of the PDP. They belong to the opposition, so is an opposition agenda to create disharmony and chaos in the country. Hence we in the Buhari Campaign Organization resist it. “My direct call to the Zamfara governor is that he has no power or capacity to take such stance. Resources belong to the country. When we talk about resources in Zamfara state we are talking about Nigeria as a whole and not just Zamfara state, so he has no capacity. It is s constitutional matter that the Federal Government should decisively deal with. “They sponsored and promoted EndSARS that end in chaos after which they are now creating another source of crises.
On the reaction of the South-South governors to the Zamfara Governor, the BCO National Coordinator explained that the issue of the discovered resources is constitutional and the license for tapping them are issued by the Federal Government not the Zamfara state government. There are ten licensed companies that are registered in that regard and Zamfara state government had no capacity to register any company, they are all of the Federal government. So as a governor if he promotes illegality the law is there” he declared.
