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OFFICIALS OF the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) have visited the Aburi Botanical Gardens to ascertain the level of destruction done to the forest reserve by the District Chief Executive (DCE) of Akuapem South, Kwadwo Afari-Gyan. They also inspected the project site of the Cocoa Research Institute, where managers of the Aburi Botanical Gardens have been accused by the DCE of cutting and selling the economic trees to enrich themselves. After the inspection, officials of the EOCO, who came from Koforidua, the Eastern regional capital, engaged the management team of the Aburi Botanical Gardens, where they grilled the latter on a number of issues, including the illegal logging in the forest reserve and those located in the gardens. The crack meeting, The Chronicle gathered, lasted for five hours. The Chronicle established that the DCE, Kwadwo Afari Gyan was also subjected to similar interrogation. Managers of the Aburi Botanical Gardens have in recent times come under severe attack by Mr. Afari-Gyan, accusing them of mismanaging the gardens and illegally felling and selling some of the economic trees to enrich themselves. Such accusations had come about following the strong resistance by the management to kowtow to the demands of the DCE, who was hell-bent on developing a portion of the 172-year old forest reserve into an Assembly office complex. �They are running away from the truth. But I will continue to pursue that agenda and bring sanity into the gardens. I will expose them. People are enriching themselves at the expense of the tax payer,� Mr. Afari-Gyan recently told a local radio station in Accra. Though, the Curator of the Gardens, Mr. Albert Asiedu, has admitted cutting down trees, he said such an action was not meant for commercial purposes as alleged by the DCE �We are indeed cutting down trees, but that is meant to pave the way for a project by the Cocoa Research Institute,� he noted. According to him, authorities of the Gardens and that of the Cocoa Research Institute had entered into an agreement to revamp the cocoa farm in the gardens meant for research purposes, hence the cutting down of the �voluntary trees� in preparation for the said project. After the interrogation exercise, the EOCO officials also inspected the record books of the Aburi Botanical Gardens to find out how best the facility was being run. They also inspected the store room of the gardens, where the seized lumber from Mr. Afari-Gyan and the Assembly were being kept. Following the invasion of the Aburi forest reserve and the subsequent illegal logging by Mr. Afari-Gyan on March 7, 2014, authorities of the Gardens were authorized by a Deputy Minister of Local Government & Rural Development, Baba Jamal, to take custody of the lumber and supervise its sharing with the Assembly. However, such an order has not been carried out owing to disagreement over who takes what, in terms of percentage in the sharing exercise. Mr. Afari-Gyan, together with some members of the Akuapem South District Assembly, was also interrogated by the EOCO officials on the above mentioned subject matter. It was, however, not clear what their findings were, but deep throat sources who were privy to the exercise said the EOCO officials were expected to submit their report within forty-eight hours to their superiors in Accra for advice, before taking any appropriate action.