BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Concerned over what it described as the systematic destruction of the Nigerian ecosystems through illegal activities of some Chinese in the country, the National Ecosystem Advocates of Nigeria (NEAN), has raised alarm over the dangers posed to the ecosystem in the country.
NEAN, whose primary goal is to monitor and ensure the preservation and maintenance of the nation’s ecosystem, said that following the ugly development, there is the urgent need for the Inspector General of Police to immediately order the arrest and prosecution of those behind these dastardly acts.
These were contained in a statement by Comrade Ben Iguabor and Silas Modaccai, Coordinator and National Secretary respectively of NEAN in which they said that it has become expedient to sound the alarm over the menacing and criminal activities of some unscrupulous Chinese in our nation’s forests, bushes and water areas.
It said that its findings indicates that some Chinese who enter the country on the guise of construction workers are fraudulently turning some of the nation’s forests and bushes into safe haven for the destruction of the nation’s flora and fona for their selfish material and economic gains.
NEAN noted that the illegal Chinese find easy collaborators among some unpatriotic Nigerians who aid them in perpetrating the violation of animals and timbers in the nation’s forests and bushes.
According to NEAN; “In particular, illegal buying and slaughtering of donkeys in parts of the Southeast and Northwest for export has continued to thrive among these unscrupulous Chinese and their local collaborators.
“We understand that donkey meat, as well as their hides and skins are very highly sought after in China, which is unable to meet its local needs, hence the pressure and resort to illegal importation from countries like Nigeria.
“As if the illegal killing and export of donkeys from Nigeria by these Chinese are not enough, they have recently resorted to assaulting and harming guards of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services (NAQS) who attempt to check their nefarious activities and their collaborators.
“On two occasions in January this year and only last Tuesday, agents of the Chinese were reported to have organized heinous attacks on NAQS guards as well as some police personnel attached to them in Ebony State, carted away weapons of the police and inflicted serious injuries on those guards.
“We are concerned that if the relevant agencies of our Governments do not act fast, donkeys may soon go into extinction considering the frequency they are being poached by these Chinese.
Regrettably, efforts by the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services being spare-headed by the Director General and Commandant of the agency Dr. Vincent Isegbe through the construction of monitoring outposts across the country, has failed to yield the desired outcomes because of the collaborative support of some unpatriotic Nigerians as well as some personnel of the Nigerian Customs Service, who compromise their office and turn blind eyes to the illegal export of the donkey meats and products.
“In some other instances, these criminal Chinese also poach some species of birds, crocodiles and other animals, again for illegal export to their countries.
“These Chinese also extend their criminal acts in the illegal plundering of timbers in our forests and bushes, again with the active connivance of some of our unpatriotic citizens,” NEAN said.
It therefore call upon the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) to live up to its statutory responsibilities by monitoring and ensuring that foreigners, in this case, Chinese, who come into our country are permitted purely on need-base, even as they are also joined to carry out routine renewal of expatriates work permits to ensure compliance the nation’s extant laws.
It also appealed to members of the National Assembly to as a matter of national concerns, strengthen the powers of the NAQS, through the review of the Act setting up the agency, stressing that there is the necessity of all the sister agencies of the NAQS for proper collaboration if the menace posed by these foreign criminal elements is to contained and tackled.
