The Ogun State Government has promised to redouble efforts aimed at eliminating illegal logging and other activities that are detrimental to the survival of trees and seedlings planted in all its nine forest reserves.
Permanently Secretary, Ministry of Forestry, Mr. Timothy Olatunji stated this while fielding questions from a private television station, adding that the menace of illegal logging and other illicit activities in the Omo Forest Reserves in Ijebu East Local Government Area of the State in particular and other reserves were part of the challenges which were not peculiar to the area alone.
Speaking on the efforts by the Ministry deployed to checkmate the menace, the Permanent Secretary said, over 150 forest guards had been deployed to Omo Forest Reserves to safeguard boundary areas and put illegal logging under check.
He said that the government also planned to incorporate the use of an automated platform that would eliminate fraudulent practices in the area of logging operations, engagement of services of security personnel such as the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Army, ‘Amotekun’, So-Safe Corps, and local vigilantes for patrol and protection.
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Speaking further on the government’s intervention towards ensuring reforestation as a result of illegal logging, Olatunji noted that between 2004 and 2019 a total of 4,578.3 hectares were planted with trees out of which 2,481.8 hectares were planted in Omo Forest Reserves.
He said, ‘’In 2023, the State government planted 1, 894,511 trees, while Omo Forest Reserve planted 944,939 trees.
kidnappers’ informant at Kabi-Mangoro village in Kuje Area Council.
The Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, who disclosed this to newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, said the suspect was arrested by the operatives of the anti-kidnap section of the command following actionable intelligence at Kabi-Mangoro village in the area.
He said the operatives stormed the forest and arrested the suspect, who gave his name as Mohammed Hamsa, from the neighbouring Gaube village, which shares a border with Nasarawa State.
He said the suspect, who was on his way to deliver some items such as food stuffs, drugs, wine and Indian hemp to the kidnappers at their den, confessed to be an informant supplying them with drugs and food.
He said one Dogo (surname unknown), who is a notorious kidnapper on the command’s wanted list, would be charged to court after an investigation.
CP Garba also disclosed that the police operatives attached to Byazhin division, working in close collaboration with the vigilantes, have arrested five suspects in connection with the abduction of a minor.
He gave their names as Bernard Francis, Felix Benjamin, Peter Benjamin, Helen Sylvester and Hamza Haruna.
He said, “In the course of our investigation, the suspects confessed their involvement in the kidnapping of a five-year-old Umar Iliya on August 7 from Guita village, Kuchiko, on Kubwa axis.’’
He said the suspects led the police operatives to the residence of one Helen Sylvester, a widow and a co-conspirator at Giko village located at about 13km away from Guita village where the victim was kept for three days.
CP Garba, however, said the victim was subsequently rescued and has since been reunited with the parents, adding that the suspects will soon be arraigned in court.
