Ayade vows to deal with illegal wood loggers in C’River, says hard time awaits them

From Judex Okoro, Calabar

Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River has vowed that his government would go all out to fight illegal wood loggers in the state for their alleged nefarious activities.

Addressing newsmen in his office in Calabar on Thursday, Ayade lamented that the activities of these loggers have led to progressive depletion of Cross River forest reserve.

The Governor regreted th at
communities which are forest bearing have been massively dislocated and their land mass completely eroded, thereby creating huge environmental challenges with a cumulative long term consequence.

He said: “Cross River State has 58% of the entire forest cover of Nigeria. We have growing concerns about the rate and the speed of depletion of our forests.

“It is against this background that I am sending a note of final warning that I cannot watch the complete degeneration of our forest as we see illegal logging becoming the order of the day.

“From today, anybody caught with illegal wood, your vehicle, the driver, the occupants of that vehicle, the destination of the stolen wood, the government official who is colluding, or the security operatives who are colluding or the forest guards who are colluding, will be picked up and dealt decisively with.

” We will ensure that we involve the entire global community to sit and watch and monitor your prosecution to ensure that justice is done. I can see that the illegal loggers have now developed into full-blown armed cartels who are prepared to harm anyone standing in their way.”

He, however, assured that the government is ready use some people in government, who create an impression that by the appointments they have they can now collude with illegal wood loggers, as scapegoats

He said the administration is fed ypup with setting up conventional task forces and committees to tackle the menace and will henceforth explore other options, including a special espionage.

According to the Governor, “we are tired of the complete cycle of conspiracy and so to bulk the trend, an unknown task force which is a complete espionage on the criminality that is going on in our forests will be set up.”