By Ola Ajayi

IBADAN— THE Oyo State Timber contractors and Saw Millers Association has accused the state government of converting forest reserves and plantations across the state to commercial farmlands.

The association, which has threatened to file a suit against the state government, described the policy as an invitation to ecological disaster to the state and the entire South West.

According to the association which said it has about 5,000 members, the exposure of the forest reserves to environmental degradation could threaten the ecological support fund that the country enjoys from international donor agencies.

In a letter of protest through their counsel, Mr Remi Alli to the Commissioner for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Rural Development, the timber contractors argued that before the state government ventured into the project, it should have made it pass through the statutory environmental impact assessment report which the government allegedly failed to do.

The state government should have looked elsewhere for vacant lands for its commercial farmlands and not the forest reserves knowing the grave consequences of deforestation.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi led administration, had, in a letter marked 411/27 and dated September 25,2017 approved the creation of agricultural zones from the existing forest reserves in the state. The letter was signed on behalf of the state government by A.B Oladejo who signed for the Director of Forestry.

The government had listed the forest reserves in Gambari, Ijaiye, Osho, Igangan, Lanlate, Olokomeji, Olasehinde, Okoo-Iro and Opara  with 250,000 hectares of land as areas where the commercial farmlands would take place.

The government policy will affect 11 out of the 33 local government areas of the state.

Vanguard gathered that the lands had allegedly been allocated to top government officials including Governor Ajimobi who has reportedly got thousands of hectares of land in Oluyole and Oke Ogun areas of the state.

But the association said, “We believe that this is yet another attempt at destroying the legacies of the founding fathers of the Yoruba race, to wit, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Ladoke Akintola and others and we shall vehemently but legally resist this attempt at selling off our patrimony and destroying our environment for the present and future generation”.

“The conversion of forest reserves to commercial farmlands would result in soil erosion and flooding not just in the state but in the region as a whole. The objectives of the National Environmental (Soil Erosion and Flood Control) Regulations, 2001 are to resist or prohibit land disturbing activities which are dangerous to health, safety and property due to water induced erosion caused by increased flow velocity and volume of surface run-off; and to regulate the alteration of natural floodplains, stream channels, and natural protective barriers, which are responsible for the accommodation and conveyance of flood waters.”