Illegal loggers arrested

The Chairman of the Forest Plantation Development Fund Board, (FPDFB) Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu II, on Friday arrested three young men engaged in illegal logging at Ayesu, off the Peki-Asikuma highway in the Volta Region.

They are Samuel Doe, 31, Mohammed Issaka, 20, and Korsi Agbo, 33.

The culprit had sawn nine Wawa boards and were about to saw a Cedrela tree, which they had felled into boards when they were arrested.

They were handed over to the Police at Peki together with a chainsaw they were using and an Urvan bus without seats to be used to convey the sawn timber.

Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu, the Dormaahene, was in the area on the last leg of his three-day inspection of Forest Plantations in the Volta Region.

The sound of a chainsaw in the bush caused Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu and his team, including reporters, officials of the Ministry of Lands and Forestry and the Forestry Commission, then driving towards a plantation to stop and verify what was going on.

The noise led them to the three young men, who were busy at work.

Doe, who at first alleged that they were undertaking the operation on behalf of the Member of Parliament for a school project at Dzemeni retracted his allegation upon further questioning.

He then claimed ownership of the chainsaw and the Urvan bus and went on his knees before Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu and confessed that he had entered into an agreement with one Mr William Bankas, who owns the land, to fell the tree to be shared between them.

As part of his plea bargain, Doe promised to take Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu to his farm for some yams and other food items and also to see his one acre Cedrela plantation.

Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu told the culprits that they were undertaking a destructive venture, which the government was trying hard to stop.

He urged the public, including community leaders to get involved in checking indiscriminate felling of trees by chainsaw operators.

Source: GNA