The chairman of Cross River State Forestry Commission, Dr. George O'ben-Etchi, has debunked the allegation by executive director, Rainforest Resources Development Centre (RRDC), Prince Odey Oyama, that Chinese nationals have established a wood factory in Effi community forest in Okuni village of Ikom local government area of the State.
O'ben-Etchi made the declaration following a fact-finding visit to the community. The visit was aimed to verify the veracity of petitions alleging the invasion of the forest by Chinese businessmen.
Oyama had in several publications raised the alarm, alleging that some Chinese nationals doing business at Okuni village had set up a wood processing industry at Effi community rainforest, an allegation that warranted the State's Forestry Commission chairman and his team to visit Effi community.
The forestry commission boss stated that he and his team decided to pay a visit to the community to confirm if Oyama's allegations as contained in his petitions were true or not.
"I got a petition from a Crossriverian, Prince Odey Oyama, an indigene of Effi community, Okuni village, alleging that Chinese nationals built a factory in Effi forest.
"The petitioner alleged that the Chinese men were doing a lot of destruction to the forest and that they were cutting small trees, not allowing them to grow.
"I decided to make a visit to the community, met with youths and chiefs because there were also allegations that the chiefs were the ones who brought them and one Barr. Ichire Okim.
"Luckily, as we got to the community, I met with the chiefs and thier community lawyer to ask them what exactly was going on.
"We were brought to the premises of former Mikes Plant that used to operate in those days, only to discover that the factory was not in the forest as alleged by the petitioner. Rather, the factory is located right in the heart of Effi community in Okuni village.
"The Chinese men were actually not in the forest. They were not even involved in logging activity of any form. This I can say authoritatively.
"I don't know if there is something else that warranted the write-up from our brother, except there is something else that is going on behind the scene, which I have no knowledge of.
"I was shocked and began to think that probably we were not in the right factory, because of the way and manner in which the issue was trending on social media platform that there was massive tree cutting on-going in Effi community forest by Chinese people.
"I actually came to ascertain what is on the ground. My team and I came here with the hope of seeing a Chinese factory in the forest, unfortunately we saw nothing like a wood factory in the forest.
"What we saw is a small factory located at former Asuquo's Plant even in the heart of the community, even though the factory is yet to be registered with us.
"They have actually written to us asking for licence to enable them build the factory to operate at full capacity. Interestingly, we found out the factory is not even in the forest.
"The wood you see here, are pieces of wood that are brought by farmers while trying to clear their farms. I really don't think that it is wise to discourage investors who are coming to impact on the lives of our people," the Forestry Commission chairman stressed.
In his remarks, youth president of Effi community, Comrade Otegha Edim, averred that Oyama's allegations against the Chinese nationals were not true, stressing that the Chinese businessmen only visited their land to do legitimate business.
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"Our community chiefs only leased out the land to them for few years. Nobody sold the land to the Chinese. In the past, our people used to use these small pieces of wood for firewood, fortunately these days, the small pieces of wood are sold to the Chinese people.
"The Chinese told the community people that instead of using these small pieces of wood for firewood, why not sell it to us so that we can use it for production of plywood and at the end of the day, they created jobs for the youths.
"The woods you see here in this factory are soft woods," the youth president stated.
However, efforts to get the petitioner's reaction to the commission's findings failed as phone calls placed to his telephone line did not go through and text messages sent to him were not replied either.
