The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Oladele Alake, has called on manufacturers of mine explosives to combat alleged leakages from their factories by tightening the security and logistics of their operations.
Speaking at an emergency meeting with the manufacturers in his office in Abuja, yesterday, Alake said there was popular outcry against the role of the manufacturers in the easy access of unauthorised persons to explosives and indiscriminate storage across the country.
Noting that the government was reviewing the system for tracking the movement of explosives from the manufacturers to end-users, the Minister in a statement by his Special Assistant (Media), Segun Tomori, urged them to look inwards and fish out workers who may be responsible for illicit sales or manufacturing of explosives.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the three licenced manufacturers of explosives – Solar Nigachem Limited, Intrachem Limited and Dynatrac Limited.
Speaking on behalf of the companies, the Chief Executive Officer of Intrachem Limited and chairman of Association of Commercial Explosives Dealers, Biodun Abu, explained that the manufacturers had complied with the regulations of the government in terms of security surveillance of their operations by deploying Close Circuit Television in their factories and coding the explosives for easy tracking by the manufacturer and the company that ordered for them.
