By Sunday Ani, Lagos
The Commandant General of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS), Ambassador Joshua Wale Osatimehi, has said that the organisation’s complimentary role is helping the nation’s security agencies, including the police and the army in the fight against bandits, terrorists, kidnappers and other crimes and criminalities in the country.
Osatimehi stated this in Onitsha, during a working visit to the zonal office of the organisation in Anambra State, comprising all the five states in the South East. He said the NHFSS was doing a lot to stamp out criminalities in the country by obtaining and sharing inteligence with the various security agencies in the country.
He noted that apart from intelligence gathering, officers and men of the service were also involved in flushing out criminals, either working alone or in collaboration with police and others, especially crimes within and around bushes and forests.
Osatimehi, who paid homage to some royal fathers in the state alongside the Deputy Commander General in charge of Technical Services, Ambassador John Metchie, and other top officers of NHFSS, maintained that hunters had proved their gallantry and bravery in the war against criminal elements, as well as helped to rescue kidnap victims and recover stolen items kept in the forest by miscreants.
He said they were in Anambra State to synergise with constituted authorities and to intimate them with their modus operandi. He added that the NHFSS had been in existence over the years working in collaboration with constituted authorities across the country to flush out crimes and criminalities in the forest as stipulated in the bill establishing the outfit.
The Commandant General, who equally disclosed that the bill establishing the NHFSS has received the blessings and endorsements of the National Assembly, and awaiting presidential assent, stressed that they were in the zone to further educate the officers and men of the organisation on the need to be disciplined and more professional in their mode of operation.
According to the NHFSS boss, hunters are the real owners of the forest, and not the criminal gangs. “Hunters have recorded series of tremendous success across Nigeria. We need assistance from the government in terms of logistic supports like operational vehicles and motorcycles to chase criminals in the forest.
“Again, if the NHFSS is endorsed by Mr. President, it will boost their morale and also afford them more leverage to work with other constituted authorities,” he said.
However, the traditional ruler of Umuoba-Anam community in Anambra-East council area of the state, Igwe George Ekwealor, who was one of the royal fathers visited, eulogised the NHFSS, recalling that hunters were veritable security apparatus in the preliterate era.
He urged officers and men of the NHFSS across the country not to relent in securing the forest from criminals, and appealed to state, federal and local councils, public spirited individuals and corporate organisations to support them in their quest to reclaim the forest from the unknown gunmen, kidnappers, armed robbers and other social misfits.
In his remarks, Amb John Metchie hailed the gallantry of the hunters, saying they had helped tremendously to improve and enhance local security and vigilance.
Metchie, however, maintained that rather than sabotage the efforts of the hunters, they should be supported with working tools and other relevant materials to enable them compliment the efforts of other security agencies.