OGSG CAUTIONS FOREST USERS AGAINST ILLEGAL OPERATIONS

OGSG CAUTIONS FOREST USERS AGAINST ILLEGAL OPERATIONS

            Ogun State Government has again warned all forest users against illegal operation and the need to strictly abide by the rules of engagement while carrying out their businesses in the nine government forest reserves across the State.

            The Commissioner for forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, gave the warning while addressing a delegate of Association of Timber Contractors, Ijebu branch at the Ministry’s Conference room, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta.

             Lawal said the primary responsibility of the Ministry was to ensure rapid cultivation and conservation of forest resources for the socio-economic development and for environmental sustainability of the State, adding that government would not fold its arms and watch the forest reserves being destroyed.

            He stated that the Ministry would resist all forms of illegalities in the forest reserves, adding that ban on ‘flitches’, unauthorized logging and establishment of new settlement within the forest reserves subsists.

            Chief Lawal warned further that any village Chief culpable for allocating land without government permission would be decisively dealt in accordance with existing forestry law.

            The Commissioner disclosed that the obsolete forestry laws had been reviewed and currently awaiting necessary legislation by the State House of Assembly, stressing that when passed into law, it would prescribe the necessary punishment for perpetrators of illegal activities in forest reserves in the State.

            He said though the State government was not against legitimate businesses in the forest reserves, yet it expected that contractors to operate in tandem with the existing forestry law.

            Responding, the Chairman Timber Contractor Association, Ijebu branch, Alh. Mukaila Adekoya, said the association appreciated the efforts of the Ministry in curbing illegalities and pledged its support to further wage war against all forms of illegal operations in the reserves.