Ogun Nabs Forest Reserve Encroachers
The war against forest reserves encroaching by Ogun state government has started yielding results as the government has arrested some people for engaging in the act.
Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, disclosed this while speaking with newsmen at Area J1 Forest Reserve, during a monitoring exercise.
Lawal, who led the Special Task Force on a routine inspection to some villages, which include Korede, Lawal, Sojukorodo and Eseke settlements in Ijebu North East Local Government Area, said some of the arrested suspects had been on the wanted list for illegal activities in the reserves, such as, aiding illegal migrants, destruction of economic trees and illegal allocation of government land to farmers from neighbouring States.
He explained that despite the ongoing campaign against deforestation and planting of new cocoa in the forest reserves, the suspects had illegally set up new settlements deep inside the forest, destroyed trees and allocate land in preparation for cocoa planting, adding that, the suspects would be prosecuted accordingly.
‘’During our routine check, it was discovered that many illegal Baales and some notorious encroachers had been selling forest land to farmers from neighbouring States. They also set up new settlements and destroyed trees. Those arrested will be prosecuted accordingly,’’ Lawal said.
The Commissioner noted that the State government had continued to demonstrate its support for promotion of agriculture in the State with various programs, noting that, destruction of State resources under any guise would not be tolerated.
Lawal, however advised those interested in securing land for agriculture purpose to contact the Ministry of Agriculture or Ministry of Forestry for those interested in agro forestry activities.
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Lagos Post Online
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