The Joint Task Force, JTF, of the Ondo State Ministry of Natural Resources have arrested four Indian Hemp farmers in its forest reserve.
WITHIN NIGERIA learnt that the four suspects were apprehended by the JTF operatives while preparing parts of the forest reserve in Akure, the state capital ahead of the rainy season for the planting of their illicit business.
Alhaji Moshood Obadun, the Director of the Joint Task Force in the Ministry said the culprits who were arrested following a tipoff had destroyed economic trees and other forest resources in the reserve.
The State Commissioner for Natural Resources, Idowu Otetubi also frowned at the development and emphasized that no encroacher found violating the restriction order on forest reserves across the state would be spared.
While noting that the encroachers acted in defiance to a government directive to all illegal occupants to vacate it’s forest reserves across the state, the commissioner said those arrested would be charged to court.