A group, Nigeria Human Rights Community (NHRC), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and all the 36 state governors to ban the illegal exportation of Nigeria precious wood resources.
NHRC, a coalition of 135 civil society organisations, made the call on Wednesday in Lagos, noting sadly that the way and manner foreign nationals invaded Nigeria forest reserves to cut wood which was of economic value to the country and export it abroad illegally was worrisome.
Speaking at a joint press conference, which took place in the Maryland area of the state, leaders of the group, Comrades Adewale Adeoye, Kudu Abubakar, Taiwo Adeleye and Segun Balogun, declared that what they were seeing across the length and breadth of the country was blatant rape of Nigeria’s environment by the combined dubious synergy of local and international conspirators.
“In the past three months, the NHRC has been receiving reports from across the country from indigenous people whose livelihood is threatened and their forest resources are at the verge of extinction.
“These communities are helpless. They face a hopeless situation. The most affected communities are in Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Ekiti. Kwara, Kogi, Lagos, Osun, Cross Rivers, Rivers, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta states.
“In the Northern states, most hits are Plateau, Nasarawa and Benue. The main actors are Chinese, Koreans and Lebanese who have no other job than to invade the forest, cut down the trees for export in the most ignoble, vicious and callous manners,” the group said in a statement read by Adeleye.
The group, therefore, urged the Federal Government to ban activities of Chinese, Lebanese, Koreans and all foreign nationals alleged to be involved in the illegal exportation of Nigeria precious wood resources.
According to the group spokesman Adeleye, the Federal government need to set up a probe panel and judicial commission of enquiry in all the affected states to identify, punish and sanction all the foreign interests and their collaborators involved in the illegal business.
This was just as he disclosed that the rights group would have embarked on legal action to deal with the perpetrators of the act, but decided to use the media to bring the nefarious act of the foreign nationals and their collaborators to the public, adding that it shall soon embark on a mass protest to bring the illegal act to the people’s court, so that, they can act on it to put an end to the illegal activities.
“Our forest reserved, wood species, economic trees are being mauled down with desperation. These precious and inestimable forest resources will determine the livelihood of millions of Nigerians.
“As we speak, Nigeria is the hub to the largest illegal exportation of illegal wood in Africa,” the group lamented.
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