Hunters seek speedy passage of bill to empower them to remove criminals from forests

The Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) has asked the house of representatives to expedite the passage of its establishment bill.

The Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) establishment bill was passed by the senate in April.

Speaking on Thursday at the inauguration of its national headquarters in Abuja, Joshua Osatimehin, commander general of NHFSS, asked the national assembly to complete legislative work on the bill and transmit it to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

Osatimehin said signing the bill into law will give the NHFSS the legal backing to “chase these criminals from the forests”.

“We have been rendering a series of auxiliary services to the country. We have collaborated with the existing security agencies like the Nigeria police, civil defence, army and DSS to strengthen the internal security system,” he said.

“You will agree that as hunters, we are present in all the nooks and crannies of our forests and some of these social enemies — the criminals — have made the forest their place of hibernation. Signing our bill into law will empower us to chase these criminals from the forests.

“The forests belong to hunters, not criminals. If our Bill is signed, that constitutional backup will strengthen our mode of operation to work with other security agencies to curb crimes and criminality in our ungoverned spaces which are majorly the forests, bushes and farmlands.”

“Last year alone, we were trained by the department of training and development, force headquarters, in lieu of managing security and security challenges in our forests. We have gone through all the police training institutions in Nigeria. I see no reason why governors should leave this noble organisation and be forming their own.

“We have been trained, we are organised and we have our people in all the nooks and crannies, ranging from the unit level to the ward level, to the state level, to the zonal and national levels. I believe the federal government should take over this organisation and make it an agency of the government, to be commissioned into the national security system.”

THE BILL

In September 2021, Ibrahim Musa Goni, conservator-general of the National Park Service (NPS), said bandits and insurgents are occupying 1,129 square metres of the country’s forest reserves.

In January, Nasir el-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state, said security operatives should “carpet bomb the forests” to wipe out bandits.

“These bandits operate in the periphery because their hiding place is in the forest. It’s a major problem. The security agencies are doing their best but they are overstretched,” he had said.

The bill seeks to empower the NHFSS to be responsible for preventing and combating forest crimes, tackling bush and forest fires — investigate and arrest persons suspected to be involved in forest crimes.

The proposed legislation also seeks to establish a council charged with the responsibility of harmonising all groups and associations of hunters, protecting the large expanse of forests.