Bayelsa born activist , Azibaola starts campaign to protect wildlife in N’Delta

From Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa

Environmentalist and award -winning innovator, Robert Azibola has kicked -off a campaign to protect wildlife and rainforests in the Niger Delta region.
According to him the decision to commence the mobilization of communities in Bayelsa State against the destruction of rainforests and wildlife in the Niger Delta is borne out of his passion to save the environment.
Azibaola who stated this in an event tagged, ‘ Bonfire night with Azibaola Robert at Otakeme, Ogbia Local Government Area declared that indiscriminate  logging and hunting has led to the extinction of plants and animals .

Azibaola who was recently honoured as a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineering (NSE) due to his various innovations tasked Niger Delta  communities to take ownership of the task to checkmate blanket wood logging and depletion of pristine natural forests resources for economic gain of few people.
Azibaola disclosed that the campaign for the preservation of the rain forests and its diverse wildlife is sequel to his expedition into the deep forest in 2021.
Speaking on the rationale behind the event, the activist who also doubles as the Chairman of Zeetin Engineering Nigeria limited, decried the deplorable condition of the Niger Delta environment.
He said: “I am not doing this event because I want to criticize the government for not doing enough to protect our rainforests. The Niger Delta is called the rainforest because when it rains in the communities here, it also rains in the Niger Delta region’s forests. The Niger Delta has one of the largest rainforests in the world. The largest rainforest is called the Amazon rainforest somewhere between Brazil and other American nations. We must protect this blessing given to us by God.

“I grew up in this community as a child, and I know certain places were named after trees. But now all those tress have been fallen down by loggers for furniture and other things. Surprisingly, you can’t find any furniture industry in this area, but can find them in areas that don’t have the rainforest like us here. I’m not doing this programme to gain anything, but to enlighten our people and create awareness on the dangers of deforestation and the near total extinction of our biodiversity.

“Recently, I and members of my team and other persons, including journalists went into the Otakeme forest on a 14 -day expedition to uncover the spate of environmental degradation of our rainforests in which we discovered that certain animals, trees and other biodiversity have completely gone into extinction. If you cut one tree, plant more, because without these tress, there won’t be life. The oxygen we breathe comes from the trees which take in carbon dioxide from the environment and give us oxygen for our survival.”