{"id":145983,"date":"2025-01-12T12:01:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-12T11:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters"},"modified":"2025-01-20T12:26:39","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T11:26:39","slug":"how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters","title":{"rendered":"How we cleared Umuahia forests of criminal elements \u2013 Hunters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Sunday Chukwudiegwu Mmeribe, the leader of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services, NHFSS, in Abia State, has said that his members have cleared forests in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, of criminal elements.<\/p>\n<p>Mmeribe, who spoke on his team\u2019s operations, said his members relied on tip-offs from local farmers in arresting drug dealers and other criminal elements hiding in Abia\u2019s forests, adding that his members\u2019 efforts contributed to the security witnessed in Umuahia during the yuletide.<\/p>\n<p>He further said that they usually obtained valuable information from traditional rulers and also collaborated with security agencies, including the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, since 2016, the Forest Guards have been arresting kidnappers, child trafficking syndicates, and other criminal elements, promptly handing the suspects over to the appropriate security agencies within 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>He also disclosed that the Ikpa forest, located between Ubaha and Umuezeoma in the Oriendu Ancient Kingdom in Umuahia North LGA, has been significantly sanitized of criminals, pointing out that farmers, particularly women, were harassed or assaulted in the past by criminals, which scared villagers from going to their farms.<\/p>\n<p>Commander Mmeribe, who praised Governor Alex Otti\u2019s efforts in tackling criminal activities in forests and other localities in Abia, appealed to his administration for functional vehicles and other resources to enhance their operations, lamenting the lack of support.<\/p>\n<p>Traditional rulers in Umuahia North LGA, in December 2024, invoked bees and death on kidnappers operating inside the forests in Umuahia North LGA.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Sunday Chukwudiegwu Mmeribe, the leader of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services, NHFSS, in Abia State, has said that his members have cleared forests in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, of criminal elements. Mmeribe, who spoke on his team\u2019s operations, said his members relied on tip-offs from local farmers in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":145982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1208,254,4273],"class_list":["post-145983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-abia","tag-nigeria","tag-umuahia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>How we cleared Umuahia forests of criminal elements \u2013 Hunters - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sunday Chukwudiegwu Mmeribe, the leader of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services, NHFSS, in Abia State, has ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How we cleared Umuahia forests of criminal elements \u2013 Hunters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sunday Chukwudiegwu Mmeribe, the leader of the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Services, NHFSS, in Abia State, has ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-01-12T11:01:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-20T11:26:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/01\/sm_1736670837.603971.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"915\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"How we cleared Umuahia forests of criminal elements \u2013 Hunters\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-01-12T11:01:17+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-20T11:26:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\"},\"wordCount\":268,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/01\/sm_1736670837.603971.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Abia\",\"Nigeria\",\"umuahia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/how-we-cleared-umuahia-forests-of-criminal-elements-hunters\",\"name\":\"How we cleared Umuahia forests of criminal elements \u2013 Hunters - 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