The Edo State Government has said it would collaborate with the management of Okomu Natural Park to ensure the preservation and protection of the rain forest park and its wildlife.
It also assured management of the establishment that the state would monitor logging activities and encroachment into the park.
Making the disclosure on Tuesday at the Edo State Government House, Governor Godwin Obaseki, urged the management to furnish the state government with information on illegal activities in the park.
He noted that the park was a heritage in the state and its conservation was paramount to promote its eco-tourism potentials and artistic value, reiterating that his administration was committed to baulking environmental degradation and deforestation within the rain forest zones in the state.
“It is in our interest to work with you and you should work with us so that we can re-own our park. We will do what we have to do to preserve the park. We will revoke titles given to land owners within the park,” he said.
Furthermore, Governor Obaseki disclosed that plans were on the way to establish a forestry commission for better management of forest activities in the state.
Earlier, the Conservator of the Park, Mr. Abdullahi Ahmed, said the state government’s support was needed in the protection of bio diversity in the park, which is located in Ovia South West Local Government Area in the state, and in tackling invasion of migrant cocoa farmers as well as stopping logging within the park.
Ahmed explained that the 202km2 park, which was established about 20 years ago, was one of the seven natural parks in the country, and that it had recorded successes in the areas of research, ecotourism promotion and establishment of good relationship with the host community.
In another development, Governor Godwin Obaseki, on Wednesday, paid a surprise visit to Egor Local Government Council by 8:20am and vowed to punish senior officials for late coming and dereliction of duty.
The governor warned that henceforth, officials who turned up late to work and did not have cogent explanations, would be suspended, while snap checks would be conducted every day by 8:00am and 4:00pm.
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Out of the 599 staff members, only 36 were on ground 20 minutes after the official resumption time, leading to the suspension of the Head of Administration, Mrs. Rachael Iriefo, even as the governor recalled that Egor was the most indebted Local Government in the last administration.
He said: “You see, they do not come to work, but at the end of the month, their bill is almost N50m for salaries, outside of teachers. No senior person is here, no Head of Service; so how can they manage the Local Government?”
He also lamented that the council got N47m, yet their Union leaders would protest that the government had abandoned its obligations, adding that although the state did not owe LGs, it had to use other monies to make up for their deficits.
Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki remarked that everyone in the state had to buckle up to develop the state and that the Local Government must not be allowed to collapse.
He declared that if they failed to generate enough money to pay salaries, then he would get managers to do the job, berating them for their dilapidated transport system in spite of the fact that they received N107m from their last windfall.
On the purpose of the visit, he disclosed that while at the Joint Allocation Committee meeting JAAC, yesterday, it came to his notice that the amount available after deductions and after IGR for this month was less than N1m, meanwhile, salary bill gulped about N50m monthly.
He therefore, visited the LG to conduct on-the-spot assessment because the solution to the problem could only come from the workers and the only way he could help them was by getting them sound leadership to make the LG viable.
“We give this Local Government 3 month to become viable. They have to do everything they need to do to reduce cost and increase revenue. Walking round your premises, I am shocked that this is what your offices look like.
“It is so filthy and I wonder how you keep your LGA clean if you cannot keep your own premises clean. All your senior officers are not at work, so if your leadership is as irresponsible as displayed now, how are we going to get the leadership to run this Local Government?” he said.
Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Lucky Imasuen, who was also present at the LG, agreed that the LG workers had to justify their income, saying that only a radical approach could put them in their place.
John Mayaki,
Chief Press Secretary (Interim),
Governor’s Office, Benin.
