Police Probe Tree Seedlings Found On A Refuse Dump Site

The Asante Mampong Divisional Police Command in the Ashanti Region is investigating a case in which about 8,011 tree seedlings of various species were found dumped at a refuse site at Bosofuor, near Asante-Mampong.

The seedlings which include Ofram, Mahogany and Teak, are valued at GH¢12, 000.

The probe is expected to be extended to cover theMunicipal Chief Executive (MCE)for Asante Mampong, Thomas Appiah-Kubi, as well as, an Assembly Member under whose jurisdiction the incident occurred.

The seedlings were discovered on July 28, this year, by guards of the Asante-Mampong Forest district, during their routine checks to inspect trees planted at the Offin Headwaters Forest Reserve in the area.

After sorting, a total of 5,891 of the seedlings were found to be in good condition and have since been planted by the Forestry officials.

A Principal Resource Guard, Elvis Merru Tizza, who led the team, explained how a KIA truck driver managed to escape arrest by officials.

“This is a YEA Plantation site. We came here for an activity when we saw a KIA truck moving out of this site. We thought, maybe, they came to do illegal logging or something here”, he said.

Mr Tizza continued; “So we were chasing the KIA truck to see what was inside it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the KIA truck so we came back and traced to the site where we saw that seedlings were dumped on the ground”.

Recall that earlier last week, news went viral about thousands of abandoned seedlings suspected to be part of this year’s Green Ghana project, a flagship programme of the Lands and Natural Resources.

That report accused the Assemblyman for the Mampong Bosofour Electoral Area of the Assembly who indulged in that unlawful act.

A journalist with the state broadcaster, GBC, Clement Kwaku Adu, who disclosed this, was emphatic that the Assembly Member dumped the seedlings which came at a cost to the taxpayer.

The journalist told the Ejura-based Naagyei FM that his checks showed that the seedlings which included teak and mahogany were given to the assemblyman by the Member of Parliament (MP) Kwaku Ampratwum Sarpong to facilitate the planting exercise.

Interestingly, the Assemblyman was also given money to ensure that people are recruited to do the planting exercise at a fee.

“It is instructive to note that the MP gave the assemblyman money from his own pocket to facilitate the planting of the seedlings”, he said.

The Assemblyman on his part in an interview on Naagyei FM, rubbished the claims, insisting that he was not responsible for the dumping the seedlings.

But days after that reports, a bigger picture of the incident is being revealed after the Executive Secretary visited the region and the place of the incident specifically.

Chief Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission John Allotey, told journalists during an inspection of the site where the incident occurred, that aside the police investigations, the Commission was also conducting its own investigations to know where the seedlings came from.

Mr Allotey said while approaching the place the truck moved away and when officers finally got to the site, they saw that some tree seedlings had been left at the refuse dump.

Mr Allotey said the guards reported the matter to the district forest manager who then instructed the sorting of the seedlings since the guards had reported that some of them had gone bad.

He said the District Forest Manager lodged a complaint to the Ghana Police Service at Mampong.

Mr Allotey explained that the seedlings could come from two sources.

He said they could be seedlings which form part of the Green Ghana planting project or seedlings which were part of private nurseries that have raised them hoping to sell to the FC for the Green Ghana activities.

He said the Commission had sent information to citizens in the area who might have seen the truck move away from the refuse dump to assist in the investigations

Mr Allotey said the Commission was also following up to check what had been planted by groups who secured bulk quantities of seedlings from the district to plant during the 2022 Green Ghana Day Programme.

He said it was to ensure that the seedlings were planted and if there were shortfalls, the district would be able to confirm whether it might have come from the Green Ghana Project.

This year, government budgeted about GHC 9.6 million for the 2022 ‘Green Ghana’ project.

The Green Ghana Day was introduced in 2021, by the government as part of an aggressive national afforestation/reforestation programme to restore the lost forest cover of Ghana and to contribute to the global effort to mitigate climate change.

The maiden edition was held on June 11 2021, where an estimated 7 million tree seedlings were planted across the nation.

Under the first edition, a target for planting 5 million trees were set, however, at the end of the exercise, it emerged that 7 million trees were planted.

In this year’s exercise held on June 10, President Akufo-Addo who led the exercise planted a tree in commemoration of the Green Ghana day.

While the President planted a Moringa Tree (tree of life) last year to mark the occasion, he planted the African mahogany tree this year.

Source: Anchorghana