The Akyem Swedru circuit court in the Birim South District of the Eastern region presided over by His Honour Abubakar Abass Adams has sentenced a 33-year-old chainsaw operator to 18 months in prison. The convict, Kwaku Arful was handed the jail term after being found guilty of engaging in unlawful chainsaw operation in the Oboyo forest reserves located within the Akyem Oda district forestry zone.
The police chief prosecutor Richard Mekposigbe reading his charges before the court indicated that, on Thursday 17th November 2022, Kwaku Arful the chainsaw operator was arrested by the Akyem Oda forestry taskforce team in the Oboyo forest around 5am and items retrieved from him were chainsaw machine and tools bag. The Akyem Oda district forestry manager; Mr. Ernest Adofo speaking to the media indicated that the central government is doing its best to ensure that forest zones in the country are well maintained hence the government's implementation of Green Ghana policy and ‘they will not sit down and watch our trees being destroyed by illegal chainsaw operators but rather arrest them for the law to take its course”.
He has therefore advised the general public to access legal and necessary documents that mandate someone to go into the forest reserves to cut timber else if the law gets hold of them, they won't be left to go scot-free.