December 07, (THEWILL) – A non-governmental organization, Citizens Against Crime and Corruption (CACC), has called for the prosecution of all illegal wood loggers in Cross River State.
In addition, the CACC also wants officials of government, particularly a director in the Cross River State Forestry Commission, to be prosecuted for abetting illegal logging in the State.
Jon Lovety, the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the group, made the call in Calabar, the state capital, during a media parley.
He said the activities of illegal loggers have caused a lot of destruction to the State’s pristine forest reserves and are being aided by officials entrusted with the responsibility of protecting the forest.
“There is serious logging going on in the State and we decided to form our organisation to complement the effort of the State Government in checkmating the activities of criminals.
“The issue of logging is a dangerous thing because the criminals are always armed. We want these persons involved in illegal logging to be prosecuted and then the government should send people into our forests for fact-finding,” he said.
He said his team have identified and visited communities where massive destruction of the forests is ongoing including Okokori, Old and New Ekuri, Agoi Ekpo, Agoi Igbali, Nku Esa and Owai Ifupa among others.
Lovety deplored the situation where a petition against some identified illegal loggers and officials was sent to the EFCC and the Police authorities and nothing has been done, saying the lives of the people are under threat.
He said the lethargy of officials has emboldened the illegal loggers and they are now investing massively in acquiring forest reserves with their ill-gotten wealth at the expense of the society.
THEWILL Correspondent, Aniekan Bassey has over six years experience that spans across several fields in print journalism including development communication, sexual reproductive and health rights issues, crime, climate change, social justice, business and human interest stories.
