WARRI –
The Association of Wood Dealers of Nigeria (AWODON), Delta State chapter has dissociated itself from a purported petition against the Delta State Ministry of Environment over allegation of illegal collection of fees from saw-millers and wood sellers, affirming that the Association was not privy to the said complaint and does not share the views of the petitioners on the matter.
Reacting to a front page news report in the October 31, 2016 edition of the Urhobo Voice newspapers, captioned ‘’CDHR accuses Delta Govt of Illegal Collection from Saw-Millers’’, the Association of Wood Dealers of Nigeria stated that the allegation was being peddled by operators of hand motor saws for cutting of woods and saw millers, explaining that those behind the allegations are mischief-makers.
In a statement signed by the Delta State Chairman of AWODON, Comrade Akpobaro Anthony, the Secretary, Comrade Ishelegwu Innocent and PRO, Comrade Timothy Laya, the Association affirmed that ‘’the claim by the CDHR boss, Comrade Kehinde Prince Taiga, that the Honourable Commissioner, Chief Bar John Nani ‘’is fraudulently extorting money from wood traders in Delta State is not true, it is false accusation of an innocent man’’, the statement said.
‘’We believe it is coming from disgruntled elements who are not prepared to follow the proper regulation of the trade in wood business. We have neither received any complaints of extortion or imposition or collection of fraudulent fees from our members. The claim by the Chairman of CDHR is totally false and we use this medium to call on the group to cross check their facts properly before wrongly accusing innocent persons in the media. We comment the matured and transparent manner the Honourable Commissioner for Environment has been handling the Ministry since he resumed office’’, the statement added.
The statement condemned the attitude of dragging all stakeholders into an issue that does not affect all those in the wood business stressing that ‘’how can we in the Association of Wood Dealers of Nigeria lodge such a petition against government when we are not affected in anyway by the payment of daily fees for wood felling or haullages? We pay our annual dues and once you are up to date with your dues, no task force will trouble any lorry or truck taking woods from your shop to any destination. It is therefore our sincere appeal for handsaw operators to abide by the rules of the game instead of crying wolf where there is none’’, the statement added.
