Residents of Yipala/Nabori demands a shutdown Chinese Rosewood Company

The residents of Yipala/Nabori Electoral Area in the West Gonja Municipal Assembly of the Savannah Region have ordered a shutdown of Zagos New Style Company Limited, dealers in Rosewood and Paapa trees.

Located at Yipala, the company buys rosewood and Paapa from local chain saw operators across the Savannah Region and process them into short wood for transportation to China.

In a letter copied to this writer however, the Assemblyman for the area, Iddrisu Abdul Rahman together with the Community Chief, Alhaji Braimah Jamani and the youth leaders ordered the company to halt operations forthwith, since they were identified to be operating in the community illegally.

"I wish to stand on a memorandum reached after a community stakeholder meeting to convey that you stop operations in the community forthwith. This has become necessary due to information received by stakeholders of the community from sources within the municipality that you are operating without a permit from the assembly. An act which is against the laws of Ghana and the municipal assembly," the letter stated.

Portions of the letter also indicated that there was no formal engagement with the community before the company started operating, a situation which didn't afford the community the opportunity to review the operations of the company and its Corporate Social Responsibility thereof.

Meanwhile, snippets of information received by this writer points to the fact that, the operations of Zagos New Style Company Limited largely remains unregulated, a situation which calls for worry.

Background:

It can be recalled that the then Savannah Regional Minister, Salifu Adam Braimah on 10th May,2019, ordered a shutdown of BrivyWelss firm following the arrest of a Chinese woman in Tamale, Helen Huang who was transporting several containers of rosewood to Tema.

The minister then formed a nine-member committee to resolve the twin evils of rosewood logging and commercial charcoal burning which had threatened the sustainability of the environment, farming, food security and communal harmony in the region.

BrivyWelss firm is what has transmogrified today into Zagos New Style Company Limited after the original company sold out its rights to the current company.