From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Timber merchants in Edo State yesterday took to the streets of Benin City in protest against government closure of the forests and stopping their logging operations in the last seven months.
They alleged that the government action has subjected the over 8,000 people involved in the operations and their dependants to hardships.
The protesters who caused traffic gridlock and bore placards with different inscriptions against the state government, further alleged that some Chinese who are also into logging were being allowed into the forests.
Spokesman of the protesters and Secretary of Edo Sawmillers Association, Dr Nosa Abosanmwan, who spoke to journalists at the Edo State Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said “Our workforce is over 8,000 and all of them are at home.
“You can imagine the number of people depending on them, many of these workers have families and you can imagine the ripple effects this is having on us. We supported the governor when he was contesting but we didn’t know he would put us into suffering this way.
“The painful part is that our forests have been closed to indigenes but opened to the Chinese to be picking woods but we don’t want to take laws into our hands that is why we are staging this march. He has made a series of promises and none of these promises have been kept, we are going to continue until our demands are met”.
On his part, the Chairman Edo State Timber Lorry Owners, Walter Osadolor, said there are about 2,000 trucks in the state and each has three to four workers. He appealed to the public to prevail on the state government to allow them to go back to the forest.
Reacting to the protest, the Commissioner of Communication and Orientation, Adaze Emwanta Esq, said many of the loggers were carrying out illegal operations in the forests, even as he disclosed that the state was carrying out reforestation.
He however denied the allegation that some Chinese operators were accessing the forest and said it would be investigated.
The Commissioner added that the government had commenced a meeting with the leadership of the unions to carry them along in the new regulations in Edo forests.