Governor Abubakar Sani-Bello of Niger State has called for Federal Government’s intervention in curbing the incessant and indiscriminate felling of economic trees across the country.
He said that the act was capable of causing environmental disaster in the country.
Sani-Bello made the call when he paid a visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief Audu Ogbeh in Abuja.
The governor said that the felling of trees would lead to environmental threats to both man and animal, hence the need for the matter to be discussed at the federal level.
He said his administration had taken measures to address the act across the state through a task force empowered to effect arrest and prosecution.
“If we allow the rate at which these economic trees are being fell indiscriminately to go unchecked, we may be having in our hands serious environmental crisis for the country.
‘’The sad thing is, they fell these trees without replanting new ones. This uncharitable act expose the country to desert encroachment and a serious distortion in our rainfall pattern.
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“That is why in Niger State, we have a law that prohibits tree felling. We have resolved to arrest and prosecute those involved in this act, especially those felling our economic trees for charcoal business.
“The state government will not fold its arms and allow people to endanger the environment. The importance of these trees are too enormous to man and animal. If we continue in this act of deforestation it will result to global warming which will endanger our lives,” he said.
The governor urged the Federal Government to provide communities with seedlings for planting of trees across states so as to avert environmental hazards in the future.
In his remarks, Ogbeh assured the governor that the matter would be presented both at the Federal Executive Council and the National Executive Council meeting to enable all the governors take action.
The minister also assured Sani-Bello of the provision of seedlings to plant trees so as to serve as an option to felling of economic trees across the country. (NAN)