Dozens of animals and plants, including farmlands have been destroyed by a wildfire at Ngo mainland in the Andoni Local Government Area.
Sources from the area informed The Tide that communities in the area including Ngo, the headquarters of Andoni Local Government Area is being threatened by the inferno.
According to the source, the fire is few kilometers away from Ilotombi, Ngo and other communities in the Ngo mainland.
Speaking in an interview with The Tide, the chairman, Community Development Committee (CDC) Ngo, Mr Clement Clement, said the fire was noticed around February 21, 2020, stressing that the fire seems to be coming from the direction of coastal communities on the Ngo mainland.
He, however, claimed ignorance of the causes of the fire. Clement who is the chairman, Forum of Community Development Committees, Ngo mainland, called on the government to come to the aide of communities in the area.
Meanwhile, an environmentalist, Miss Blessing Digbani has called for thorough investigation of the fire incident.
Digbani, who spoke in a telephone interview with The Tide in Port Harcourt said the causes of the incident should be investigated with a view to determining whether it was caused by farming activities or not.
“If it is farmers they should be asked to stop it.” She said the incident of the wildfire in Australia should be a reminder that bush burning was not the best way of farming.
The environmental expert listed the negative effect of bush burning to include destruction of flora and fauna and called for the habit to be discouraged.
Digbani also called on government to set up cooperative societies for farmers to enable them acquire modern tools for farming.
Effort to get the reaction of Andoni Local Government chairman proved abortive as his phone line was not available.