By Esther Akaa
The Nasarawa State Governor Abdullahi Sule has restated his administration’s commitment to flush out bandits and kidnappers pretending to be miners and carrying out illegal activities in the state.
Governor Sule stated this while briefing members of the State Executive Council on the ongoing efforts to tackle insecurity and other activities in the state on Monday at Government House, Lafia.
He noted that the decision to go after unlicensed miners was due to the unending issues of insecurity in the country, and in line with the decision of the Northern Governors Forum during its recent meeting in Kaduna.
According to him, during the meeting, the Northern Governors proposed a six months ban on mining activities in the region as a result of heightened cases of kidnapping and banditry.
He said, “One of such decisions is actually the suspension of mining activities. A lot of people will say the improved revenue that we have seen is from mining so how come we suspend mining operations.
“No, we are suspending all licences, if the President agrees then, there will be verification so that we can find authentic miners rather than just having so many illegal miners all over the place.
“Because everywhere you have mining activity, a lot of bandits, kidnappers, find that place as haven for them”.
Governor Sule, who is also the Chairman of the North Central Governors Forum further explained that the 19 Northern Governors agreed to make a monthly contribution of N19billion to a security fund in order to tackle the increasing spate of insecurity in the region.
“And so the 19 governors will be contributing 19 billion every month for 12 months, because we had to take this fight on our own”.
Sule explained, “we have to use the money, one, on the purchase of equipment that are necessary, including high-tech equipment that we are going to use in fighting insecurity. Secondly, for the engagement and actually, the employment of so many other youths that we have, who will be properly trained and then armed actually to support us, either in form of vigilante or hunters; that is part of the work that the money is going to do.”
The Governor also revealed that there is going to be an additional 100 million Naira that every state is going to give which would be used for the building of the foundation of the forum’s Secretariat in Kaduna.
“That is the Northern State Governor’s Secretariat in Kaduna. So initially, we say we are going to give 100 million each this month so that we can put that together for the clearing of the land and the foundation. So, this is different from the N1billion” he said.
Governor Abdullahi Sule used the opportunity to commend the security agencies, traditional rulers, and all the stakeholders in Nasarawa State for thinking outside the box and seeking for solutions in tackling insecurity across the state.
“A lot of things are happening. In fact, today there is a combined forces arrangement in Nasarawa Local Government Area for what they consider clearing operation. We have been having a lot of kidnappings and things like that in some of those villages in Nasarawa. So they are going to carry out that entire operation between today. In fact, all of them are going to be there from today,” he explained.
Governor Sule announced that the state’s rice named ‘NASACCO’ which is being produced and bagged in partnership with Silvex International, would be officially launched on December 17, 2025 in the state.
According to the governor, the state government is partnering with the company to buy rice paddy from the state-owned farm located in Jangwa and Agwatashi, boundary between Awe and Obi Local Government Areas, to process and market it.
He stated that the company would brand the processed rice as NASACCO Gold, and sell to consumers at a 10 per cent discount of the current market price of 50kg bag.
It will be noted that the state government had cultivated 3,300 hectares of the 10,000 hectares acquired land rice project in the areas and harvested 1.2 million bags during the 2025 farming season.