Akyem Oda, Aug 10, GNA - Mr Edward Kwame Bosompem Apenkwah, a Circuit Court judge sitting as an additional Magistrate Court Judge at Akyem Oda on Thursday warned that he would not hesitate to impose heavy sentence on illegal chainsaw operators arraigned before his court. He said considering the alarming rate at which the forest was being depleted a time had come when stringent measures needed to be taken to protect it from further degradation.

Mr Apenkwah said this when he sentenced Kwadwo Akwaah, a 40-year-old illegal chainsaw operator, to six months imprisonment in hard labour.

Police Chief Inspector Ben Osei Kwadwo had told the court that on July 27, a forest monitoring team had a tip-off that somebody had entered the Birim Extension Forest Reserve at Adiembra. He said the team moved into the forest where they saw the convict who had felled a quantity of wawa trees and was sawing them into lumber. Police Chief Inspector Kwadwo said the team arrested Akwaah and handed him over to the police.

He pleaded guilty and begged the court to have mercy on him since he was a first offender.

Meanwhile Mr Thomas Okyere, the Akyem Oda District Manager of the Forest Services Division (FSD), has expressed his gratitude to the prosecution for the swift manner the case was disposed off. He appealed to chiefs and opinion leaders living near forest reserves to be vigilant and expose illegal chainsaw operators to the law enforcement agencies.