Two workers of the Bauchi State Ministry of Housing and Environment on Saturday reportedly escaped being lynched by some charcoal producers in Zaranda village in Toro Local Government Area of the state.This was when a team of Mobile Court on Environmental Abuse set up by the ministry visited the community to try defaulters.
It gathered that the Chairman of the Mobile Court, Magistrate Laraba Hamisu, was one of the officials attacked.
According to a source, the team’s assignment was forcefully terminated following several threats by the attackers who later smashed the windscreens of the team’s vehicles.
The state Commissioner for Housing and Environment, Hamisu Shira, condemned the villagers’ actions but said the government would not be intimidated.
He warned that the perpetrators of illegal tree felling for charcoal making, an activity for which the community is renowned for, would be apprehended and made to face the wrath of the law.
