PDP raises alarm over Osun mining licence

Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has raised the alarm and accused the Rauf Aregbesola-led Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) government of commencing the process of selling the state’s solid minerals mining licence to some leaders of the ACN based in Lagos.
In a statement issued by its Director of Media and Strategy, Diran Odeyemi, the PDP said: “We are not surprised at the latest move by Aregbesola to sell our asset, because as at the last time, he sold several hectares of land in Osun State to Lagos State government, people said PDP was crying wolf, but we will not be deterred in exposing this government as an expansion of Tinubu’s assets.”
Going down memory lane, the PDP said the state, under the former governor; Olagunsoye Oyinlola, applied for and was granted a mining licence, which conferred on the state the right to mine solid minerals in any part of the country by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) which conducted the bidding sessions.
It added that this gave birth to the Livingspring Mineral Promotion Company (LMPC), as a limited liability company and that LMPC had, prior to Oyinlola’s exit from government, acquired 11 mining sites across the country and “had also worked diligently with prospective investors in mining destinations including Australia, United States, Canada and South Africa to commence mining operations in an attempt to widen the revenue base of the state.”
The PDP alluded to a widely publicised statement credited to Aregbesola, when a team of mining experts from the Geological Surveys of Nigeria Agency, led by Prof. Siyan Malomo, visited the state about four months ago when he openly admitted that Oyinlola achieved so much in the mining sub-sector, saying that it “never knew Aregbesola was laying the premises to sell off those gains to his political god-fathers and sponsors,” with the statement.
While vowing to fight the Aregbesola administration with all legal means to thwart the move by the ACN to rob Osun State of its patrimony, “which Aregbesola himself some months ago described as an enduring legacy of the Oyinlola administration, the PDP appealed to concerned Federal Government agencies and the media to remain alert and assist the people of the state in aborting what it described as “daylight robbery.”
In a related development, the Lagos State chapter of the PDP has criticised the Lagos State government for organising a “waste to food” holiday programme, which it said encouraged teenagers and school children to scavenge for plastic bottles in return for “food.”
The PDP said such programme at this time is barbaric, exploitative and extortionate.