The Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission, Kwadwo Owusu Afriyie, has called on the government to allow forestry guards to shoot-to-kill.
He said such a directive will ward off the activities of illegal chainsaw operators in the country.
According to him, the only way the “nation wreckers” could be stopped from their illegal activities to preserve the country’s forest reserves was for the government to sanction the shoot-to-kill system by the task force.
Afriyie, who is popularly known as Sir John, made these comments after the latest attack on a military officer and a member of the task force at Sefwi Wiaso.
The attack was perpetrated by Rahama Bawa, popularly called Wazinga.
During an interaction with members of the task force, it was established that Bawa was rearrested after he had escaped from hospital with the injuries he had sustained during a shootout with members of the task force.
Sir John said he has proposed to the government to sanction a shoot-to-kill system to ward off illegal chainsaw operators from degrading the forests.
He said such a decision could also help protect members of the joint military-police forestry task force from attacks, especially in the Sefwi Wiaso and the Juaboso areas in the Western Region.
Bawa has since been sentenced to a two-year jail term by the Sefwi Wiaso Magistrate Court. His accomplices were, however, granted bail.