John Allotey
THE CHIEF Executive Officer of the Forestry Commission (FC), John Allotey, has said communities bordering Asukese Forest have suggested to the commission to perform traditional rites to the gods help locate the forestry guard, Vitus Yuordong who got missing in the Asukese Forest a little over a fortnight ago.
Mr. Allotey indicated that this and other technological means such as drone technology and GPS are all being employed to locate the missing forestry guard.
He disclosed this after paying a visit to the Sunyani Forestry Regional Office to receive update on the whereabouts of the victim who got missing in the Asukese Forest Reserve on July 2, 2023.
According to him, three rapid response teams from Sunyani, Dormaa and other security agents have been put together into search teams to look for their colleague.
“As part of searching for him, we have also sent information to where he was posted from to the Sunyani District as part of our investigations.
“Meanwhile, his family has been informed and we give them update every now and then on what we are doing to locate him,” he added.
The Forestry Commission CEO also said his visit was to motivate the workers and encourage them to continue with the hard work to clamp down on illegal logging in the forest. Three chainsaw machines and 200 timber logs were seized same day.
“They are doing well so we need to motivate them so that this incident doesn’t affect their morale,” he stressed.
Mr. Allotey appealed to communities around the Asukese especially Daadom, Atronie, Kufuor Camp, Nsuta among others to volunteer information to the search teams.
“This incident rarely occurs in our operations, but our focus is to find him and after that we will review our mode of operations going forward so that we don’t encounter this again,” he added.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani