The Ministry of Environment announces a partnership with security agencies to form a ‘special force’ aimed at eliminating bandits, kidnappers, and insurgents from the forests across the country.
The Minister of Environment, Balarabe Abbas, revealed on Thursday in Kaduna that the Ministry is working to establish a ‘special force.’ This move is deemed necessary due to the diminished effectiveness of Forest Guards assigned to secure the country’s forests, which have now become hideouts for bandits, poachers, and terrorists.
Speaking at a two-day top management retreat organized by the ministry in Kaduna, Abbas explained that the gathering aimed to address the ineffectiveness of the current Forest Guards and brainstorm on strategies for the swift remediation of Ogoni land in the Niger Delta.
The retreat’s theme was ‘Policy Embedment and Prioritization of Key Action for a Renewed Hope in Environmental Management.’
Abbas emphasized the ministry’s determination to reclaim forests nationwide that have turned into sanctuaries for terrorists.
He said, “As I had indicated and said several times, we have a very serious issue with our forests. Our forests have now become a hibernation ground for bandits, poachers and kidnappers but the only way we can save the forests and also save the communities around them is to do something drastic.
“I spoke with the President. We are going to come out with measures to get enough forces into the forests to flush these people out.
“This is an issue that is of much concern to President Bola Tinubu and the Federal Government will soon set up enough forces to beef up security in the forests.
“If we don’t do that, we will find out there’s no way we can make progress in our Great Green Wall, which we are putting lots of money in, trying to fence Nigeria from the encroachment of the desserts.”
He added, “So, we need to have a strong force that will first clean the forests of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and also clean the forest of porches that are killing our very rare animals.
“We already have Park Rangers and other forest guards but they are ineffective because the number is not there and the boots on the ground are not enough to handle the issues. They don’t have enough force to confront bandits.
”We will liaise with the military, Department of State Services, police and other security agencies to put an end to this danger. We will continue to engage with the Ministry of Defence.
“I visited the Minister of Blue Economy recently. They are thinking about Coastal Guards taking cues from America when they were bedeviled by piracy. They created Coastal Guards separate from the Navy. We are trying to do that like Kenya and Tanzania. They created a strong force but their issues were far less than ours.”
On Ogoni clean-up, the minister charged “participants on the need to brainstorm on strategies to increase government commitment and support, improve capacity building, enhance monitoring and evaluation, create public awareness as well as explore various conflict resolution mechanisms and international collaboration in Ogoniland.”