The Offinso Circuit Court has sentenced a 32-year-old Chainsaw Operator, Agyenim Boateng, to six months imprisonment with hard labour.
Boateng who hails from Apagya in the Offinso south district of the Ashanti region was charged with illegal harvesting of timber.
His Lordship Justice Frederick Kwabena Twumasi sentenced him on his own guilty plea to harvesting timber without utilization contract at Dermaa, contrary to the Timber Resource Management Act 1997.
He is to begin service immediately at the Kumasi Central Prisons.
He was arrested by a monitoring team at the scene while working with chainsaw machines on November 9.
His arrest was based on an informant’s tip-off that Agyenim had illegally entered the reserve to fall trees despite warnings from the Manager in charge of the Offinso Forest District, Mr. Kobina Baiden.
Mr Baiden had, on several occasions, threatened to deal with residents who take over the government’s forest reserve to hunt for game and logs.
Speaking after the sentencing, Mr Baiden reiterated that there are laws guiding the forestry, cautioning residents to take a cue from Agyenim’s plight.
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