17th July, 2015
The Executive Secretary, Lagos Island Local Government Area of Lagos State, Prince Adetoyese Olusi has called on residents of the Local government to imbibe the habit of tree planting to enhance a healthier environment.
Olusi stated this during the 2015 tree planting campaign exercise that was observed in the local area. he also appealed to residents to avoid indiscriminate felling of trees, saying such gesture exposes the local government environment to all form of environmental hazard.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s tree planting exercise “Tree: the lung of the Earth”, Prince Olusi said; “the theme signifies the importance of trees to our environment, I am therefore appealing to you to make tree planting a priority. Sensitize your neighbors to plant trees, discourage them from destroying the already planted trees; let us imbibe the habit of nurturing trees in our environment to enable us having a healthier and greener environment.
“Tree helps in the provision of foods, sheds for relaxation, and medicinal herbs for curing of ailment/diseases and more importantly, it helps to prevent environmental degradation, I therefore charge you all to start planting tree from today”, the council boss appealed.
Also speaking at the event, the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Environment, Engineer Akeem Ogunbambi, appealed to people in the council area to protect their environment by planting trees reiterated that the world needs several billions of trees, insisting that tree is the lung of the earth.
Ogunbambi, who was represented by Densohin Olusegun, a top official in the Ministry, said tree planting campaign exercise, which was inaugurated by the former governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, in 2008, has added significant value to the Lagos environment. He also pointed out that over 5 million trees have been planted since inception of the exercise, leading to several thousands of employments.