By Omotayo Edubi
Cross River Governor, Ben Ayade, has promised that his government will tackle illegal wood loggers, whose nefarious activities, he lamented, have led to progressive depletion of the state’s forest reserve.
The governor who made the promise on Thursday, said that Communities, which are forest bearing, have been massively dislocated and their land mass completely eroded thus creating huge environmental challenges with a cumulative long term consequence.
Addressing journalists in his office, the governor threatened to use any political appointee and security agent who aided and abet illegal loggers as scapegoats.
“Cross River State has 58 per cent of the entire forest cover of Nigeria. We have growing concerns about the rate and the speed of depletion of our forest.
“It is against this background that I am sending a note of final warning that I cannot watch the complete degeneration of our forest as we see illegal logging becoming the order of the day.” The governor said.
