The Niger State council of traditional rulers have called on Nigerians to stop illegal mining and indiscriminate felling of trees in the state.
They warned that defaulters will be dealt with accordingly.
The Emirs made the calling when the State Commissioner for Environment, Mineral and Forestry Resources, Ali Mohammed visited their palaces as part of plans to sensitize the people on environmental degradation.
Speaking differently, the Emir of Minna Alhaji Farouk Bahago and his counterpart from Agaie emirate, Alhaji Yusuf Nuhu said stringent laws were needed to tackle illegal activities in the State.
The Emir of Minna, Alhaji Farouk Bahago while calling on the people to desist from illegal activities said he was ready to support the policy to ensure strict adherence.
While speaking to DAILY POST, the Emir of Agaie Alhaji Nuhu said there was the urgent need for illegal operators to stop cutting economic trees for charcoal, adding that “we have invited our villages and District Heads to monitor their areas, report any illegal mining and tree felling to us. They should be made to face the law.”
He added that the Council of Traditional rulers in the state had thrown its support for the review of the law at the State House of Assembly.
“All of us (the royal fathers) have been yearning for this law to be reviewed. We have been waiting for the government to review the law so that we can know how to control the illegality. We are ready”, he said.
He also said that the illegal operators had been lying that they got licence from the Ministry of Environment to fell trees.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Environment, Mineral and Forestry Resources, Ali Mohammed decried the indiscriminate felling of trees and illegal mining going on in the State.
According to him “we are revisiting areas of penalty in the forestry law so as to make fines effective enough to serve as deterrent for further destruction”.
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