Savannah Regional Minister give charcoal burners 4 weeks to leave

The Savannah Regional Minister Mr Saeed Muhazu Jibril has set up a task force to stop the destruction of the environment in the Savannah Region especially illegal rosewood logging and commercial charcoal.

He said the Regional Security Committee (REGSEC) took a firm decision to completely ban commercial charcoal burning and also rosewood felling because “we have to protect our environment”.

He said, “Today we are meeting you to make it known that we are giving Commercial charcoal burners four weeks to pack and leave the Savannah and in the 30 days we will not allow any wood whether you have conveyance or not to leave the Savannah Region”.

The Minister made these comments at a press briefing at the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council in Damongo on 30th March, 2021.

He disclosed that the task force will be led by the Police Commander of the Savannah Region and that he has met with the King and Overlord of Gonja and he has given his consent to fight logging and charcoal burning in the Savannah Region.

“If you don’t get the Chiefs involved it will be very difficult to fight to log and so our first step was to meet the Overlord of Gonja to tell him our mission and the mission was very clear and he accepted that we shouldn’t just do the talking as usual but we have to walk the talk and so once the Yagbonwura has given us the green light as the Overlord of the Gonja Kingdom we are very sure that we are foing to succeed in this our fight against the destruction of the environment in the Savannah Region”; the Minister said.

The Savannah Regional Minister added that “there is another issue that is tearing its ugly head and that is illegal mining along and on our river bodies.

Mr Saeed Jibril said there are are so many deposits of gold in the Savannah region particularly the western part which has been invaded by illegal miners and therefore the 16 regional ministers met the Lands and Natural Resources Minister to find a way to stop illegal mining but not to completely do away with it. He said they are liaising with people with concessions to register these illegal Miners so that they will do community mining which destroying the environment and water bodies.

DCOP Adu Twum Bediako said there is a difference between a committee and a task force.

He said; “The role of a task force is to ensure policies are implemented so mine is to arrest and impound with the modalities given to the task force so assuming your charcoal is impounded and you called me from the higher level on will just tell you I’m a security officer doing my work so contact the Regional Minister”.