Nigeria’s Ministry of Environment is contemplating establishing a dedicated “special force” in collaboration with other security agencies to check growing threats posed by bandits, insurgents, kidnappers and other criminal elements in forests across the country.
Environment Minister, Balarabe Abbas, who made the announcement on Thursday, said the Federal Government was highly concerned about the activities of the bandits and the escalating security concerns that had transformed Nigeria’s once peaceful forests into havens for criminal activities.
Abbas, who spoke at a two-day retreat organised by the ministry in Kaduna, said the workshop was put together so that stakeholders could brainstorm on how to flush out bandits from the forests.
He said that the decision to create a special force stemmed from the perceived inadequacy of the existing Forest Guards, who are currently tasked with protecting the country’s vast woodland areas, noting that the forest guards were no longer equipped to handle the sophisticated and violent threats posed by the criminals.
“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.
“So, we need to have a strong force that will first clean the forests of insurgents, bandits, kidnappers and also clean the forest of poachers 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”, the minister added.