By Raymond Ozoji
The Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) has discovered and dislodged a fake hunters’ oil bunkering camp at Obrikom manifold forest after Idia bridge in Rivers State.
The said fake hunters known as Professional Hunters specialised in pipeline vandalisation and oil bunkering in the forests with all manner of destructive weapons including fire arms in their possession.
Speaking exclusively with this journalist on the recent operation of the Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS), the Deputy Commander-General in charge of anti-oil bunkering DCG Amb. Dr. Nwachukwu Adah, said it was a joint operation of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Adah noted that the NHFSS got intelligence about the illegal operations of the said professional hunters in the forest and quickly co-opted the anti-oil bunkering squad of the NSCDC and together both agencies swooped on the fake hunters in the forest and arrested wife of the leader of the said professional hunters while the husband fled.
Adah said items found at the location include two pistols, one generator, three welding machines, three drilling machines, instruments used in opening pipelines and some others, adding that the said professional hunters equally impersonated the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) as they committed all sorts of crimes in the guise of hunters.
The DCG anti-oil bunkering squad Rivers State Command of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) therefore advised the general public to disregard any group called professional hunters because they were not members of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS); that NHFSS does not engage in illegality and that its core mandate is to ensure that forests are not safe abode for miscreants and criminals.
DCG Adah however commended the Deputy Commander-General (Technical Operations) of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) DCG Amb. Dr. John Metchie for technically supporting their operations in Rivers State and across Nigeria, stressing that such supports were unquantifiable.
He also extolled the NHFSS Commander-General CG Amb. Dr. Joshua Osatimehin for his directives and guidelines in ensuring that the forests were reclaimed from hoodlums and criminal elements.
