Four persons who specialize in the cultivation of Cannabis Sativa, popularly known as Indian Hemp have been arrested in Ondo State.
The suspects were apprehended by the Joint Task Force, JTF, of the Ondo State Ministry of Natural Resources.
It was gathered that the four culprits were arrested while preparing parts of the forest reserve in Akure, the state capital ahead of the rainy season for the planting of their illicit business.
According to the Director of the Joint Task Force in the Ministry, Alhaji Moshood Obadun, the culprits who were arrested following a tipoff had destroyed economic trees and other forest resources in the reserve.
Frowning at the development, the State Commissioner for Natural Resources, Idowu Otetubi emphasized that no encroacher found violating the restriction order on forest reserves across the state would be spared.
While noting that the encroachers acted in defiance to a government directive to all illegal occupants to vacate it’s forest reserves across the state, the commissioner said those arrested would be charged to court.