By Aliyu Muraki; Editing by Basirat Memudu
Nasarawa State Ministry of Enviroment and Natural Resources has described the charcoal business as illegal, insisted that banning of charcoal business is still in force in the State.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Barrister Ede Yahaya Yakubu made the government’s position known in an interview with journalists in his office in Lafia, the State capital.
He explained that government’s policy on the banning of deforestation was a deliberate attempt to forestall citizens from cutting down of trees in order to avert an effect of land degradation in the State.
According to the Permanent Secretary, “I want to tell you that those people engaging in charcoal business are doing it illegally. That is why we have our men as forest guards. When they sees you with charcoal, they arrest you and fine you.
“We are doing this, it’s a deliberate attempt to forestall these activities, not that the charcoal ban has been lifted. It’s still being in force, and we are still enforcing it because we are aware that if we don’t do that now, the climate change will be very hard,” he warned.
He added that the ministry of Environment was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the environment was protected and people are safe from all type of disaster that may occur as a result of environment-related issues.
The Permanent Secretary added that,” Making charcoal has became a business hub for people, and people have exploited our forest. And large chunk of the trees are no longer there because of that, our lands become degraded as a result of that.
Barrister Ede Yahaya Yakubu, however, maintained that the Nasarawa State Government through Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources had banned charcoal exploitation; adding that no citizen should enter into forest anywhere to produce charcoal.
