A conservationist and Executive Director of Africa Nature Investors (ANI), Tunde Morakinyo, has raised an alarm over the presence of bandits occupying forest reserves and national parks in the country. He said that due to the proximity of affected forest reserves, South-West cities like Ibadan are now prone to attack. Morakinyo added that poorly trained and equipped forest rangers has exacerbated the situation.
In an interaction with Nigerian Tribune, the ANI boss stated: “We face a serious problem with security across Nigeria with terrorism and armed bandits who occupy the forest reserves in our states.
“Due to the lack of funds for state forestry departments, most of our forest reserves have no functional forest rangers to guard them and they have become vast ungoverned spaces serving as hideouts for these terrorists.”
He further noted: “One may recall several months ago, the alarm was sounded over an invasion of terrorists from the Republic of Benin into Kainji Lake National Park in Niger State. Looking at the map, one can see how easy it would be for terrorists to move to Ibadan from Kainji Lake National Park via Upper Ogun Forest Reserve and Old Oyo National Park. One can see that the southern boundary of Old Oyo National Park is a short distance from Ibadan.
“It is unfortunate, but due to a lack of adequate funding for our national parks (by the Federal Government) or our forest reserves (by the state governments), neither the parks nor the reserves have effective ranger patrols to guard them to prevent entry by bandits and terrorists.”
Morakinyo added: “While it is important for the army to go in to flush out these terrorists from the forests, this is just a temporary solution. As soon as the army leaves, the terrorists will return to the forests and from there, wreak havoc on our towns and cities.”
He noted that the only way to solve the security issue in most states is “to have well-trained, well-equipped rangers patrolling our forest reserves and national parks 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Our state governors need to fund their state forestry departments properly so that well-trained and well-equipped forest rangers can be part of the security forces preventing our forests from being used for terrorism against our citizenry.”
Note that Kainji Lake National Park in Niger State on the border with the Republic of Benin and Old Oyo National Park in Oyo State are separated by Upper Ogun Forest Reserve in Kwara State.
“I don’t know if Upper Ogun Forest Reserve has any forest rangers at all! How many people understand what these forest rangers are facing on a daily basis? It is unfortunate that they are inadequately trained or equipped to do the important work needed to stop our forests from being occupied by bandits and terrorists. This sad state of affairs is the same in almost all 36 states of the country. A national security crisis is unfolding, but the solution is actually simple. Train and equip state forest rangers to do their jobs effectively in our forest reserves,” Morakinyo concluded.
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