The Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) says collaborations and partnerships with governors of the Southeast states will greatly help to fight forest crimes for grassroots transformation and rural development in the region.
Commander-General of the NFSS Dr. Joshua Wole Osatimehin stated this at the closing session of the NFSS nationwide sensitization visit to all its zonal commands held at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium Enugu.
The NFSS boss said the organization has come to complement the efforts of the parenting agencies through the provision of actionable intelligence from the forest inorder to rid the nation's forested regions off crimes and criminalities for sustainable grassroots development.
Osatimehin who stated that they were in Enugu to let the authorities of the Southeast know what the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) has been doing for the past 9 years, explained that the service began in 2016 as a community based hunter association criss-crossing the entire 36 States of Nigeria as well as the 774 local government areas in the country with the mandate to secure the nation's forested regions.
He said NFSS will greatly appreciate logistic supports from the Southeast state governments especially from the Enugu State Government where he appealed to the state governor to incorporate operatives of the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) into the state's internal security architecture.
He said that the NFSS has come to support the Police and other constituted authorities through the provision of actionable intelligence so that crimes and criminalities can be drastically reduced. He maintained that Southeast has 95 local government areas which implied that the NFSS, according to him, is very important for efficiency and effective service delivery in the region, expressing their firm resolve to fight forest crimes to a standstill.
Osatimehin also stated that the NFSS knows the forest linkages in Nigeria and that they have been properly trained to gather useful information for the constituted authorities. He said apart from the Southeast, Nigeria as whole has about 1,129 forest reserves, 29 forest games and 17 national parks located around the forest terrains, stressing that the NFSS is out to complement the efforts of the constituted authorities in securing the aforementioned places.
Meanwhile the Deputy Commander-General (Intelligence Department) of the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) Dr. John Metchie also appealed to the Enugu State Government to recruit and incorporate operatives of the Nigeria Forest Security Service into the state's internal security architecture, noting that NFSS has the structure and manpower to play its complimentary role in the security of lives and properties of the citizenry.
The DCG intelligence maintained that the officers and men of the Nigeria Forest Security Service are law-abiding and well-trained by parenting bodies to discharge their duties diligently especially as it concerns fighting criminals taking over farmlands and submerging the nation's forests
Metchie noted that the officers and men of the Nigeria Forest Security Service have the natural efficacy and the local science which they can apply to curb issues of criminality within the forested regions.
He however assured Nigerians that as soon as the bill establishing NFSS receives presidential assent and they are properly mobilized, they will reduce crimes and criminalities in the forested regions of the country and rescue them from kidnappers, bandits and other evil forces therein.
According to the DCG intelligence, Southeast has 95 local government areas and Enugu State has 17 council areas and they have also studied the forest linkages in the entire Southeast and they know all the forests linkages as well as interconnectivity of operations of criminals, stressing that they would deploy their local knowledge of the terrains coupled with their local science skills to ensure that forest related crimes would be a thing of the past in the region and the country at large.
Enugu state commissioner of Police who was represented by ACP Oliver Odimega (Operations) in his remarks affirmed that the Nigeria Forest Security Service (NFSS) has come to stay. The CP who described NFSS as critical partners in the nation's security architecture, expressed deep concern that the nation's forests have become the citizens' nightmares.
The Police boss maintained that most of the criminalities carried out in the cities and towns are hatched from the forests. He therefore pointed out that if the forests are properly secured, then the nation would be properly secured. He reminded the personnel of the Nigeria Forest Security Service that their job is critical and that the need for collaborations and synergy can not be overemphasized.