Ogun reads riot act to economic saboteurs

The Ogun State government says it would not hesitate to deal with saboteurs jeopardising the efforts of government at boosting Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from its forest reserves.

The State Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, gave the warning while reading riot acts to sand evacuators at Alakala Communal Zone of Ipake forest reserve in Yewa South Local Government Area of the State.

He warned the sand evacuators to desist from encroaching into the forest reserve, adding that they should keep to the terms of their contract with government and avoid going beyond the demarcated areas.

‎”We are not intends to melt down our action on anybody except the economic saboteurs which deliberately encroach on government reserves to make their money, we are urging them to immediately desist from that action before government clamp down on the”, Lawal warned.

The Commissioner also cautioned cocoa farmers at Area J4 to desist from destroying state’s economic trees planted in the reserves and if tampered should replace them with cocoa trees with immediate effect.

He explained that the State government had been magnanimous enough to allow Taungya farming in its forest reserves, saying that farmers should not abuse the privilege given to them through wanton destruction of economic trees and illegal activities in the State reserves.

Chief Lawal said the State government was striving to revamp the depleted reserves and would not hesitate to deal decisively with any economic saboteur in the state.