CDHR accuses Delta State government of exploiting saw-millers

7 years ago

CDHR accuses Delta State government of exploiting saw-millers

The Delta State Chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights, CDHR, has accused the Delta State Ministry of Environment of illegal collection of fees from saw-millers and wood sellers under the guise of task force on forestry.

In a press conference held at the Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Warri Correspondents’ Chapel, the Delta State CDHR Chairman, Comrade Kehinde Prince Taiga claimed that the ministry of environment “collects five thousand naira fee from every lorry that leaves loading sites in Warri, Olere, Koko, Burutu, Bomadi and environs on daily basis.”

While noting that the CDHR supports the payment of taxes to government, Comrade Taiga bem0aned the harassment of wood dealers by the Delta State Ministry of Environment, stressing that “There is no statutory law backing the illegal collection/ levies by the task force.”

“We take serious exception to any form of illegal collection/ levies and in particular, the harassment by the task force of forestry in the state, as there is no statutory law backing the said daily collection/ levies by the task force”, he said.

In a swift reaction, the Delta State Commissioner, Ministry of Environment, Mr. John Nani denied the allegation, noting that “the saw-millers are involved in ‘hand-saw’ and not saw-milling.”

Mr. Nani also explained that the Delta State Government agreed at a stakeholders’ meeting that the saw-millers should not be arrested but made to pay the above amount of money per lorry that was loaded.

Mr. Nani, however, clarified that the Delta State Ministry of Environment does not collect such monies from saw-millers who have paid their yearly permit.

According to him, ““Have you asked them the type of wood they are loading, whether they have the license to load the woods? Have you asked them whether they are deforesting our forests without getting permit?

“We had a stakeholders’ meeting where we agreed that they shouldn’t be arresting them again, but should rather make them pay that amount of money per lorry that is loaded.

“They are doing hand-saw, not sawmill, we don’t collect such money from sawmills that pay their yearly permit. These people take mono-saw into the forest to do hand-saw, that is why they are paying that money.”