From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Four suspected Indian hemp farmers have been arrested by the Joint Task Force of the Ondo State Ministry of Natural Resources.
The farmers, said to specialise in planting Indian hemp, were arrested in Akure Forest Reserve.
The suspects were apprehended while preparing parts of the forest for the cultivation of cannabis, destroying economic trees and other forest resources.
According to the Director of the Joint Task Force in the Ministry, Alhaji Moshood Obadun, the farmers were arrested after a tipoff.
The state Commissioner for Natural Resources, Mr Idowu Otetubi, said no encroacher in government forest reserves across the state would be spared.
He noted that the encroachers acted in defiance to a government directive to all illegal occupants to vacate government forest reserves across the state.
He assured that the suspects will be handed over to the state command of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for prosecution.
