We Won’t Allow People Packed In Trailers Enter Our Forest – Gov Aiyedatiwa

The Governor of Ondo State, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has said the government would be restricting movement into the state for security reasons.

Naijaonpoint reports that Governor Aiyedatiwa said most kidnapping incidents in the state were committed by some group of persons who come into the state in trailers without any address.

In an interview with Channels TV on Monday, the Governor explained that his administration’s new policy on protecting the forests in the state and restricting movement was to protect the state.

He noted that his administration was not closing the state’s forest as farmers and hunters would continue to carry out their genuine businesses in the forests.

His words: “There are some forests, some areas that you don’t go to really; but it’s not as if we are stopping people from going to our forest; after all, there are resources in the forest. You are going there for legitimate business, why not? We will profile you when you are coming to our territory.

“The kind of movement that we’ve noticed in some time past where individuals will be loaded in a trailer, in a truck, almost 150 individuals, where are they coming from, where are they going, what business are they going to do? Some with bikes, they want to come and be doing Okada business. 

“You must have an address of where you want to go and stay. You can’t go and be staying at a bridge or go and hide inside the forest and then the next day you turn to a kidnapper to kidnap people and take them to the forest.

“So we are really securing our forest. We want to know who and who are there. Whether we have some farmers there, who are farming genuinely, or genuine local hunters because you can only hunt in the forest. So it’s not as if the forest is totally closed up, but we need to know the activities in our forest.”