Environment
Help! Plunderers are destroying Ogba Zoo and Nature Park!
Written By: Udo Inobeme
14 Jan 2025 05:40 AM
TONY ERHA, itinerant journalist and environmental activist, global campaigner for Old-Growth-Trees and Forest Certifier with the International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO), ruminates on the higher spate of vicious destructions, taking place in and around the Benin-Ogba Zoo and Nature Park (BENZOPA), Benin City, the Edo State capital, Nigeria.
Unless urgent and enduring steps are taken by the Governor Monday Okpebholo’s led government of Edo State, to halt the destructions taking place within and about the Benin-Ogba Zoo and Nature Park (BENZOPA), the foremost conservation enclave, ecotourism destination and environmental education/awareness resource centre, could be ruined and go into the oblivion, like the Benin City Moats and earth work, a priceless heritage and one of the wonders of the world, which reckless human activities had wasted away.
For the record, BENZOPA, located within Benin City, the sate capital, is widely regarded as one of the last few vestiges (if not the last) of the Guinea lowland rainforest habits that is ‘supposedly protected’ and located in urban centres of Africa. The centre, divided into sections, has a glorious canopy of natural and artificial trees of old-growths, climbers and varied undergrowth of significant importance. Some of its miscellany of floras and faunas, in the nature forms, are listed in notable global biodiversity catalogues. BENZOPA is an appendage of the Niger Delta mangrove, known to be the second largest in the world, and one of the highest in biodiversity. Again, the centre is reputed for being a globalised ‘Bird Area’, as a transit for bird migration from Europe, America and other continents.
On 9th January 2025, a petition letter, titled “Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards at Ogba Zoological Garden and Nature Park”, sent to Governor Monday Okpebholo, by the BENZOPA’s management, revealed that “a disused burrow pit, located near the zoo, was recently converted into a refuse dump, thus posing significant health risks to visitors, staff, and nearby residents”. The statement, signed by Mr. Andy O. Ehanire, its Managing Director/Chief Executive, was emphatic that the refuse dump had measured up with the Benin City’s aquifer, threatening to contaminate its residents and the people of the city
The petition sounded the potential consequences of the refuse dumping as ‘far-reaching’ and could lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, blockage of canals and drainages in the town. Additionally, the petition also fearfully envisaged the potential risks of wildfires from the burning of the debris, with its smoking, destroying the entire zoo land, its inestimable wildlife, including others artificial ones in the confines.
Despite efforts to engage and deter the contractor and waste management company, who are dumpers of the toxic wastes, impeccable sources (who preferred anonymity) at the state Ministry of Environment, overseer of the zoo, forestry and environmental matters, had corroborated the position of the BENZOPA’s petition. They (violators) were not moved that the waste dump was unsafe. “We have obtained approval for the refuse dump from the Edo State Government”, a top officer of the company had boasted.
The actions of the refuse management company are despicable and against sustainable environmental practices, viz-a-vis the mandates of the zoo and park. And the urgent intervention of Governor Okpebholo, in line with the following suggestions made to him by the BENZOPA’s management, are undisputable.
The requests include to “renounce and revoke any permit or authorisation for the scandalous pollution…, immediate actions to stop the dumping of refuse in the burrow pit and to order the evacuation of the current dump…and prevent future environmental pollution and health hazards in the area.
Residents and a vastly stakeholders of BENZOPA have also pleaded with Governor Okpebholo to seal up the road to the refuse dump. Hence the entire zoo and park’s land, with its neighbourhood, are being polluted with the laterite dust particles from the road leading to the burrow pit, which they had opened up by bulldozing and filling with laterites’ thus removing the trees and undergrowth that had rehabilitated the area from flooding and erosion. This done, the burrow pit, which currently serves as home to the pythons and other wildlife would be replenished to a permanent and undisturbed home to them.
The same issue of burrow pits and refuse dumps similarly resumed early in year 2000 in the era of ex-Governor Lucky Igbinedion, under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Chief Igbinedion had given concessions to some powerful individuals to excavate laterite from an old and abandoned burrow pit dug by a past state government, that later prohibited its continuous use, knowing that it constitutes health and environmental hazards. The devastating excavation of the burrow pit got worse until the PDP’s era of Prof Oserheimen Osunbor.
But about 15 years ago, early in the tenures of Ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole, under the present-day All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Clem Agba, an environment-friendly commissioner of Environment, was supported by Ex-Governor Oshiomhole, and all excavators of laterite soil were chased away from the site with the heavy presence of armed policemen. The reason for doing so was environmental safety of BENZOPA and its environs.
But a recent investigation carried out by this reporter to the state’s Ministry of Environment, indicated that the immediate-past government of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, under the same PDP, had resumed the old-bad-habit of opening up a burrow pit that was for long prohibited and by the Oshiomhole’s government, in which he (Mr. Obaseki) was an integral part and in a decision-making Executive Council, that outlawed the use of the burrow pit.
Volunteered a top officer (with a preference for anonymity) in the Forestry Department of the state’s Environment ministry, that oversees BENZOPA, forestry and environmental matters of the state. “The opening up of the burrow pit by the immediate-past government of Mr. Obaseki, was one of the many infringements intentionally caused against Edo Forest Reserves and the Ogba zoo and nature park. The Obaseki’s government had consistently advised and was bent on relocating the to another virgin location, with the intent to turn it into residential buildings, without due considerations for its uniqueness and the vehement public opposition the excessive decision would have caused. Indeed, the governor had already given out the burrow pit for filling, reclamation, and for houses to be build on the vast burrow pit. A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) on the land, was being processed and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), also being conducted”.
Over the years, intermittently, BENZOPA had witnessed several other violations, which was intensed during the past eight years.
Similarly, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that relocated to opposite BENZOPA, during the period, had denied the conservation enclave known Corporate Social Responsibility support. This writer once stated in his widely read article, that NPDC was not only liable for its slipshod operations in its location, a BENZOPA’s originally designated area, with its environmental breaches of the notable conservation enclave, but set bad environmental principle for others. How can I be faulted that a national corporation, who knows better, and had gone to conduct its on EIA has not unduly influenced the immediate past government and the refuse dumpers, to similarly conduct an EIA, without the prior notice and involving BENZOPA, that is a primary stakeholder in such matters?
As the BENZOPA’s petition letter expressed optimism that the governor would take prompt attention at mitigating the risks to ensure a safe and environment for the Edo people, especially tourists and multitudes of picnickers to the zoo and nature park, Mr. Frank Azekhuemen, a conservationist and politician from Ugboha town, in Esan South East local government area, had expressed the same confidence that the governor, who appreciates nature and it salient importance, would do something to reverse the ugly development at BENZOPA, an edifice which helps to promote the global image of the state.
He was also hopeful that Governor Okpebholo will appoint a knowledgeable and environment-friendly commissioner, who would reverse the plunging environmental policies and activities of the immediate-past government, including those of BENZOPA, as Ex-Governor Oshiomhole had done.
(TheConclaveNG)
Unless urgent and enduring steps are taken by the Governor Monday Okpebholo’s led government of Edo State, to halt the destructions taking place within and about the Benin-Ogba Zoo and Nature Park (BENZOPA), the foremost conservation enclave, ecotourism destination and environmental education/awareness resource centre, could be ruined and go into the oblivion, like the Benin City Moats and earth work, a priceless heritage and one of the wonders of the world, which reckless human activities had wasted away.
For the record, BENZOPA, located within Benin City, the sate capital, is widely regarded as one of the last few vestiges (if not the last) of the Guinea lowland rainforest habits that is ‘supposedly protected’ and located in urban centres of Africa. The centre, divided into sections, has a glorious canopy of natural and artificial trees of old-growths, climbers and varied undergrowth of significant importance. Some of its miscellany of floras and faunas, in the nature forms, are listed in notable global biodiversity catalogues. BENZOPA is an appendage of the Niger Delta mangrove, known to be the second largest in the world, and one of the highest in biodiversity. Again, the centre is reputed for being a globalised ‘Bird Area’, as a transit for bird migration from Europe, America and other continents.
On 9th January 2025, a petition letter, titled “Environmental Pollution and Health Hazards at Ogba Zoological Garden and Nature Park”, sent to Governor Monday Okpebholo, by the BENZOPA’s management, revealed that “a disused burrow pit, located near the zoo, was recently converted into a refuse dump, thus posing significant health risks to visitors, staff, and nearby residents”. The statement, signed by Mr. Andy O. Ehanire, its Managing Director/Chief Executive, was emphatic that the refuse dump had measured up with the Benin City’s aquifer, threatening to contaminate its residents and the people of the city
The petition sounded the potential consequences of the refuse dumping as ‘far-reaching’ and could lead to the spread of waterborne diseases, blockage of canals and drainages in the town. Additionally, the petition also fearfully envisaged the potential risks of wildfires from the burning of the debris, with its smoking, destroying the entire zoo land, its inestimable wildlife, including others artificial ones in the confines.
Despite efforts to engage and deter the contractor and waste management company, who are dumpers of the toxic wastes, impeccable sources (who preferred anonymity) at the state Ministry of Environment, overseer of the zoo, forestry and environmental matters, had corroborated the position of the BENZOPA’s petition. They (violators) were not moved that the waste dump was unsafe. “We have obtained approval for the refuse dump from the Edo State Government”, a top officer of the company had boasted.
The actions of the refuse management company are despicable and against sustainable environmental practices, viz-a-vis the mandates of the zoo and park. And the urgent intervention of Governor Okpebholo, in line with the following suggestions made to him by the BENZOPA’s management, are undisputable.
The requests include to “renounce and revoke any permit or authorisation for the scandalous pollution…, immediate actions to stop the dumping of refuse in the burrow pit and to order the evacuation of the current dump…and prevent future environmental pollution and health hazards in the area.
Residents and a vastly stakeholders of BENZOPA have also pleaded with Governor Okpebholo to seal up the road to the refuse dump. Hence the entire zoo and park’s land, with its neighbourhood, are being polluted with the laterite dust particles from the road leading to the burrow pit, which they had opened up by bulldozing and filling with laterites’ thus removing the trees and undergrowth that had rehabilitated the area from flooding and erosion. This done, the burrow pit, which currently serves as home to the pythons and other wildlife would be replenished to a permanent and undisturbed home to them.
The same issue of burrow pits and refuse dumps similarly resumed early in year 2000 in the era of ex-Governor Lucky Igbinedion, under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Chief Igbinedion had given concessions to some powerful individuals to excavate laterite from an old and abandoned burrow pit dug by a past state government, that later prohibited its continuous use, knowing that it constitutes health and environmental hazards. The devastating excavation of the burrow pit got worse until the PDP’s era of Prof Oserheimen Osunbor.
But about 15 years ago, early in the tenures of Ex-Governor Adams Oshiomhole, under the present-day All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Clem Agba, an environment-friendly commissioner of Environment, was supported by Ex-Governor Oshiomhole, and all excavators of laterite soil were chased away from the site with the heavy presence of armed policemen. The reason for doing so was environmental safety of BENZOPA and its environs.
But a recent investigation carried out by this reporter to the state’s Ministry of Environment, indicated that the immediate-past government of Mr. Godwin Obaseki, under the same PDP, had resumed the old-bad-habit of opening up a burrow pit that was for long prohibited and by the Oshiomhole’s government, in which he (Mr. Obaseki) was an integral part and in a decision-making Executive Council, that outlawed the use of the burrow pit.
Volunteered a top officer (with a preference for anonymity) in the Forestry Department of the state’s Environment ministry, that oversees BENZOPA, forestry and environmental matters of the state. “The opening up of the burrow pit by the immediate-past government of Mr. Obaseki, was one of the many infringements intentionally caused against Edo Forest Reserves and the Ogba zoo and nature park. The Obaseki’s government had consistently advised and was bent on relocating the to another virgin location, with the intent to turn it into residential buildings, without due considerations for its uniqueness and the vehement public opposition the excessive decision would have caused. Indeed, the governor had already given out the burrow pit for filling, reclamation, and for houses to be build on the vast burrow pit. A Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) on the land, was being processed and an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), also being conducted”.
Over the years, intermittently, BENZOPA had witnessed several other violations, which was intensed during the past eight years.
Similarly, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that relocated to opposite BENZOPA, during the period, had denied the conservation enclave known Corporate Social Responsibility support. This writer once stated in his widely read article, that NPDC was not only liable for its slipshod operations in its location, a BENZOPA’s originally designated area, with its environmental breaches of the notable conservation enclave, but set bad environmental principle for others. How can I be faulted that a national corporation, who knows better, and had gone to conduct its on EIA has not unduly influenced the immediate past government and the refuse dumpers, to similarly conduct an EIA, without the prior notice and involving BENZOPA, that is a primary stakeholder in such matters?
As the BENZOPA’s petition letter expressed optimism that the governor would take prompt attention at mitigating the risks to ensure a safe and environment for the Edo people, especially tourists and multitudes of picnickers to the zoo and nature park, Mr. Frank Azekhuemen, a conservationist and politician from Ugboha town, in Esan South East local government area, had expressed the same confidence that the governor, who appreciates nature and it salient importance, would do something to reverse the ugly development at BENZOPA, an edifice which helps to promote the global image of the state.
He was also hopeful that Governor Okpebholo will appoint a knowledgeable and environment-friendly commissioner, who would reverse the plunging environmental policies and activities of the immediate-past government, including those of BENZOPA, as Ex-Governor Oshiomhole had done.
(TheConclaveNG)
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