The federal government has been tasked to urgently
develop Gashaka-Gumti Games Reserves located in Taraba State to avoid it being
used for terrorism as was the case with Sambisa forest.
Gashaka-Gumti Games Reserves, which is one of the
National Parks being managed by the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation
(NTDC), is the largest park in West Africa covering a large expanse of land
from Taraba to Adamawa States.
Making the call in a statement made available to journalists
in Jalingo on Tuesday, Senior Special Assistant to Governor Darius Ishaku on
Public Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Bello, said after the recapture of Sambisa forest
from Boko Haram terrorists, the federal government should concentrate it
efforts to ensure other forests of Sambisa's magnitude are developed to their
full potential to prevent a re-occurrence.
Bello, who described the Gashaka-Gumti park as a
lost treasure, said if not fully developed, it may become another breeding ground
for the type of atrocity that took place in Sambisa forest occasioned by its
total neglect.
"After the capture of Sambisa forest, one of
the things the federal government must ask itself is how that forest became a
breeding ground for the type of atrocity that reportedly went on there.
Ordinarily, Sambisa should have been a paradise on earth with its potential for
tourism and scientific researches. Today, the name, Sambisa, may forever be
associated with negativity. I call on the federal government to be proactive
about tourism"
Speaking further, Bello, who was twice Commissioner
for Information in Taraba State, said: "We may never know, but if Sambisa
forest was put to good use, who knows, maybe we would have been spared all the
horrors. Please, let this not become the fate of another potential paradise
called Gashaka-Gumpti."
Insisting that Gashaka Gumti must not be allowed to
waste, he noted that the state government is doing its best to develop the park
just as he enjoined the federal government to shift its focus to the
development of tourism industry in the state.
To further boost and harness the tourism potential of
the state, Bello noted that Ishaku has opened up the air space to make the
state more accessible to tourists just as he emphasised the governor's efforts
at engendering peace across the state which according to him, is very strategic
for the development of tourism.
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