A fifty-metre-long bridge has been discovered under construction in an Ogun State forest within the Ijebu East Local Government Area of the state.

According to sources, the bridge which is estimated to have gulped between N15m and N20m is said to be very close to completion.

The bridge, it was gathered, was built across the Oluwo River to link Omo Forest in Area J4 to a village in Ondo State.

However, the Ogun state government has ordered the demolition of the bridge citing “illegality”.

Information gathered revealed that some illegal loggers, who have been engaging in illegal felling of trees, had tasked themselves to for the construction of the bridge in the state forest reserve.

The state Commissioner for Forestry, Hon. Tunji Akinosi, was said to have, over the weekend, led a monitoring team to Laagan village where he saw the bridge spanning some fifty metres long.

A statement by the Information Officer of the Ministry, Soji Solarin, stated that the Commissioner ordered that the bridge, which is almost completed, to be demolished within two weeks.

Those constructing the bridge were allegedly doing so to have easy transportation of stolen forest resources of the state by illegal loggers across taken to neighbouring states.

The commissioner noted that some unscrupulous elements were behind the construction of the illegal bridge even as he threatened to arrest and prosecute settlers keeping illegal arms to perpetrate crimes in the area.

“Armed soldiers would remain part of the frequent monitoring exercises in order to prevent banditry which is becoming prevalent nationwide,” he worried. (Independent)

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