By Benjamin Akoto
Sunyani, July 18, GNA – Mr John Allotey, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Forestry Commission (FC), is hopeful of finding Mr Vitus Yuordong, a missing staff of the Rapid Response Team (RRT) of the Sunyani Forest District Office alive.
He said the search team had been beefed up with the Dormaa, Sunyani and Digya RRT, with the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and the Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) also assisting in the search.
He added the Commission had also adopted the use of technology in the form of Global Positioning System (GPS) and drones to assist in the search effort.
Mr Allotey was speaking to the media after a meeting with regional management and the search teams of the FC/Forestry Services Division on Monday in Sunyani as part of his one-day working visit to the region.
The visit enabled the CEO to ascertain the progress made in the search for the missing staff and what could be done to find him alive.
Mr Allotey said “it’s unusual for a staff to be missing,” citing that since he came to the FC in 2017, there had been no report of any missing staff.
He said Commission’s focus now was on the missing staff, saying the information and the post activity and investigation would help the Commission to review and improve upon its operations.
Mr. Allotey therefore appealed to residents around those communities fringing the forest reserves like Daadom, Yawsae, Antwikrom, Atronie, Kuffour Camp, Asaaman, Nsuta, praprabaanida Pobe in the Sunyani Municipality and all Ghanaians to assist in searching for Mr Yuordong and report to the nearest Police Station and the Forestry Office.
In a related interview, Mr Augustine Ire, a senior brother of the Mr Yuordong said the family was saddened by the current development, saying “we are not happy, we cannot eat, the family is really worried about the situation, and we are having sleepless nights”.
It would be recalled, Mr Yuordong, aged 33, in the company of his colleagues, were dispatched on Sunday, July 2, 2023, on an operation at the Daadom portion of the Asukese Forest reserve within the Sunyani Municipality to arrest illegal chainsaw operators
After a successful exercise, the team converged at a point in the forest, with three seized chainsaw machines at about 1430 hours and were ready to return to Sunyani.
But Mr Yuordong and one other staff member decided to attend to nature’s call somewhere in the forest, while the remaining two officers waited at a location in the forest.
The other officer returned to the location where the two colleagues were waiting, but Mr Yuordong did not return, and the team combed round the forest but could not find him.
GNA