Chinese nationals destroying Nigeria’s bushes, forests, water areas, group alleges

By IDOWU ISAMOTU

The National Ecosystem Advocates of Nigeria (NEAN) has urged the Federal Government to save Nigeria’s bushes, forests and water areas from marauding Chinese nationals.

It said it was expedient for the government to preserve and protect the listed spaces from unscrupulous Chinese nationals.

NEAN National Coordinator, Ben Iguabor and Secretary, Silas Modaccai, in a statement, said: “Our observations reveal that some Chinese who enter the country on the guise of construction workers fraudulently turn some of our nation’s forests and bushes into safe haven for the destruction of our flora and fauna for their selfish material and economic gains.

“Unfortunately, these illegal Chinese find easy collaborators among some unpatriotic Nigerians who aid them in perpetrating the violation of animals and timbers in our forests and bushes,” they said.

According to them, illegal buying and slaughtering of donkeys in parts of the Southeast and Northwest for export, in particular, has continued to thrive among these unscrupulous Chinese and their local collaborators.

They added: “We understand that donkey meat, as well as their hides and skins are very highly sought after in China, which is unable to meet its local needs, hence the pressure and resort to illegal importation from countries like Nigeria.

“As if the illegal killing and export of donkeys from Nigeria by these Chinese are not enough, they have recently resorted to assaulting and harming guards of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services who attempt to check their nefarious activities and their collaborators.”(Daily Trust)