The District Forestry Commission within the Dormaa-Ahenkro municipality has come under severe and dramatic attack as a group of illegal loggers stormed the office and chased every staff away in the early hours of Friday, December 11, 2020.
This follows a shooting incident that occurred on Thursday, December 10, between some illegal loggers and a joint Military & Forestry task force resulting in the death of one of the illegal loggers.
The aggrieved illegal loggers numbering about two hundred (200) stormed the Dormaa-Ahenkro Forestry Services Division in an attempt to retaliate the killing of one of their own.
According to the Dormaa-Ahenkro District Manager, Mr Ebenezer Mensah, they had earlier gathered intelligence on the potential mob attack planned by the illegal loggers and had reported same to the Dormaa-Ahenkro Police Divisional Command for protection and subsequently fled the office before the arrival of the young thugs.
The aggrieved youth mobilized themselves in four (4) Kia Rhino trucks together with numerous Pragya, tricycles and motorcycles, to the Forestry Commission only to meet a team of the police task force. Having noticed the absence of the Forestry staff, they spewed Petrol in an attempt to burn down the District Forestry Commission but for the intervention of the police, team could not succeed.
They then packed all the ceased timber Beams and boards from the Forestry yard and also packed all their previously ceased tricycles into one of the Kia trucks and left the Forestry yard. On their way back to Nkrankwanta, the District Capital for Dormaa-West constituency, which is considered the hub of illegal loggers, not satisfied with the event of things at Forestry yard, they poured petrol on the Forestry checkpoint at Diabaakrom, one of the towns closer to the reserve added car tyres and burnt it down to ashes. As if that was not enough, they passed through the yard of Telmak Limited, one of the closest timber firms in the Diabaakrom, vandalized their gate and forcefully took away two of their Tricycles which were also ceased by the company’s forest guards with illegally sawn timber Beams some four months ago.
They also passed through the yard of Telmak Limited, one of the closest timber firms in the Diabaakrom, vandalized their gate and forcefully took away two of their Tricycles which were also ceased illegally by sawing timber Beams four months ago.
The group claims the newly MP-elect, Honorable Vincent Oppong Asamoah (NDC’s ) candidate in his campaign message promised them that should he win back the Dormaa-West seat, he will embolden them to go back to business and they voted for him to claim back the seat. So to them, the Forestry District Manager has no right to stop them from sawing illegally in the forest reserves.
Hounding to this, every Forestry related activity has come to a halt and the District Forestry still closed down as all the Forestry staff has gone to hibernation for fear of attack from the timber mafias.
Meanwhile, the Bono Regional Forestry Manager and the District Manager are engaging the paramount Chief of Dormaa, Nana Agyemang Badu II to resolve the impasse and bring finality to the brawl which is far from ending as the aggrieved youth are poised to causing harm to anybody who crosses their path in this matter.
BY: Emmanuel Amegavi Sosu /awakenewsroom.com
