Four cannabis farmers apprehended in Ondo Forest Reserve

Four persons cultivating cannabis have been arrested at the Akure Forest Reserve by the Joint Task Force of the Ondo State Ministry of Natural Resources for breaching extant orders of the government.

The Director of the Joint Task Force in the Ministry, Alhaji Moshood Obadun, who spoke with newsmen in Akure yesterday, said they were arrested following a tip-off.

According to him, they were apprehended while preparing parts of the forest for the cultivation of the illicit weed, destroying economic trees and other forest resources.

Speaking on the development, the state Commissioner for Natural Resources, Mr. Idowu Otetubi, said no encroacher in the government forest reserves across the state would be spared.

Otetubi lamented that the encroachers acted in defiance to the government directive that all illegal occupants should vacate its forest reserves across the state, adding that they would be charged to court.

He noted that there are rules of engagement in carrying out any farming work in the forest reserves, warning that anyone who runs contrary to such rules would be made to face the full wrath of the law.