Eben Enasco Reporting.
Over 8,000 dependent families of indigenous Saw-millers in Edo State have been made to face unending hardship due to the temporary closure of Forests and logging activities in the State.
Recall that, the Edo State Government announced the prohibition of all forms of timber exploitation from Tuesday, August 31, 2021, following the expiration of the three-year circle of 2018/2021 Forest Allocation in the state.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Sustainability, Lucky Wasa, in a statement, urged stakeholders in the forest industry to ensure compliance to the directive as violators would be sanctioned by the Forestry Law.
The development has now razed dust among major stakeholders in the forest industry over their inability to Perform family responsibilities.
In a Protest on Friday, the saw millers in their numbers with placards inscription, occupied major streets in Benin City, to express their plights, while calling on the government to reopen the forest that had been closed for over Seven Months Ago.
The Secretary of the state Saw Millers Association, Dr. Nosa Agbonsanmwan, who addressed newsmen at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Councils’ Secretariat, said over 8,000-worker and their families had been exposed to hunger, debt and joblessness due to the closure of forests by the state government.
Dr. Agbonsonmwan, who also accused the state government of allowing only the Chinese Investors of illegally falling and hauling of logs, explained that, they were on the street to seek the reopening of the forests.
He warned that, if nothing is done by Tuesday next week to ameliorate their sufferings, they will return to the street sometime on Wednesday to further their agitations.
His words: “our workforce is over 8,000 and the whole of them are at home and some of our workers have children and family if you multiply that you can imagine what number of people have been affected”.
“We are Timber people, and our forest has been closed for over seven months against the indigenous people and opened to Chinese investors. But we don’t want to take laws into our hands. The governor made a lot of promises but non of those promise have been kept”.
“Today, we are going around to let the governor and the world know that we are hungry and our workers are suffering. We the leaders are also suffering and indebted because of loans that we have taken, and we want the governor to know that we need to resume our work because our work is seasonal, by April training season will set, in, and then we won’t be able to work again, last year we only work for six months,” he explained.
Also in the picture, was the Chairman, Edo State Timber Lorry Owners, Walter Osadolor who said there are about 2,000 trucks in the state and achieve three to four workers, attached to them.
He voiced his concerns over the multipliers’ effects amid the lingering hardships as a result of the actions of the state government, just as he appealed to the public to prevail on the governor to have a rethink and address their situations.
Comrade Festus Alenkhe, is the elected Chairman, Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State Council who received the agitators.
While expressing the unions’ concerns over their plights, Alenkhe assured of transmitting it to the appropriate authority but cautioned against generating unnecessary vehicular traffic that may be a pointer for the hoodlums to infiltrate and hijack their genuine agitations.
Meanwhile, receiving the protester’s, the Commissioner of Communication and Orientation, Honorable Adaze Emwanta, at the Government House, accused many of the loggers of carrying out illegal operations in the forests, while disclosing that the state was carrying out reforestation.
Hon Emwanta, however, assured the agitators of looking into their demands but denied all allegations leveled against the government of allowing the Chinese investors on such claims, by the saw-millers.