An Ogun Magistrates’ Court recently fined a hunter in the state N50,000 for killing an elephant, the Director of Forestry in the state, Oludolapo Odulana, disclosed this at a workshop on wildlife trafficking the Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF) organised.
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Speaking at the event held at Abeokuta, Odulana while calling on the review of the law on wildlife and forestry, explained that the penalty for the breach was too mild.
He cited a recent case of a hunter, who killed an elephant in a forest reserve in the state but was fined N50,000 by the court.
The guest speaker, Dr. Gabriel Dedeke of the Federal University of Agriculture, lamented the poaching of vultures saying the trend has severe implication for the environment.
Dedeke praised the ecological role of the scavenging birds: “Vultures play an extremely important ecological role in most terrestrial ecosystems. They keep the environment free of carcasses, waste, thereby restricting the spread of diseases (such as Anthrax and botulism) and pests such as rats. Hence their decline as a significant scavenger can lead to associated changes within their environment.”
