There’s trouble brewing in the Osun State Mineral Resources and Environmental Committee (MIREMCO) over a tax dispute with Segilola Resources Operating Limited, a mining company in Iperindo, Atakumosa East Local Government Area of Osun state.

The Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke on Mining and Mineral Resources, Professor Lukman Jimoda, revealed on a live radio show on Saturday that some MIREMCO members are working against the state government’s interests.

According to Jimoda, one of the efforts made by Governor Ademola Adeleke to thwart the plot of the saboteurs was to set up a new committee to handle communications with Segilola Resources after discovering that some MIREMCO members were not acting in the state’s best interest.

The Special Adviser disclosed that only three of them, which include the Commissioner for Finance, and the chairman of the state Internal Revenue Services, are members of the special committee and are the only officials authorized to discuss tax issues with the company.

He stressed that Segilola Resources owes the state N3.2 billion in unpaid taxes, adding that the letter sent by some unidentified MIREMCO members to the company, which led to an unauthorized payment of N98 million to the coffers of the state government, was illegal and not sanctioned by the state government.

Recall Governor Adeleke had in August inaugurated a 9-member committee led by Professor Lukman Jimoda to oversee mining and mineral resources activities in the state.