Taskforce Impounds Illegal Lumber In Brong-Ahafo

Sunyani, Sept 20, GNA - An operation to control illegal logging activities in the Brong-Ahafo Region is making significant impact.

A taskforce set up by the Regional Coordinating Council has successfully impounded more than 50 articulator and Kia trucks, loaded with several pieces of illegal lumber this year.

Currently, the trucks are in the custody of the Regional Office of the Forestry Commission in Sunyani.

The operations, according to Mr. Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Minister, were mostly conducted at night at Nkrankwanta, Dormaa-Ahenkro, Techiman, Wamfie, Bomaa and Goaso.

Addressing a news conference in Sunyani on Tuesday, the Regional Minister affirmed his commitment to fight illegal lumbering in the Region, devoid of partisan considerations.

Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh was reacting to allegations of corruption levelled against him by Messrs Kofi Owusu and David Yeboah, members of the Dormaa Wood Village.

The two lumber dealers were claiming that the Regional Minister had agents who went round the Wood Village to collect monies from members for him.

According to the allegations, Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh extorted GHC 60,000 per a truck of lumber from members of the Wood Village before they could transport the lumber to the village at Dormaa-Ahenkro.

But, Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh described the allegations as false, malicious and only to tarnish "my hard won reputation as a diligent legal practitioner, a politician, a responsible family man with a wife and children, a noble and a respected person in the society".

He therefore gave the two claimers two weeks ultimatum to retract the falsehood s they had made on the various media platforms or face legal action.

Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh emphasised that the government believed in the private sector development and regarded the sector as a key partner for accelerated economic growth and development.

The Regional Minister stressed, concerning economic progress and social development, that the government would not countenance any act that sought to injure the growth of the private sector.

"The facts are that if the activities at the Dormaa Wood Village are legal, then the government is always ready to support them and as the representative of the President of the Republic in this Region I am always ready to offer my assistance," Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh stated.

He further denied allegations that he was a solicitor for members of the Techiman Timber Market, saying the taskforce was poised to arrest operators in illegal lumber business in the Region.

Mr. Asomah-Cheremeh however added that the operations to tracking and tracing illegal timber had slowed down due to logistical constraints, and it would intensify soon.

GNA
By Dennis Peprah, GNA