It has been a battle of wits between the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and cannabis farmers. While the evil merchants keep devising crooked means of beating the law, the agency has also learnt to move a step ahead of them. NICHOLAS KALU writes on one of such earth shaking raid on the Ondo and Edo State forests.
It was an uncommon crackdown. Even the name evokes some fear. Operation Thunder Strike IV, took the thick forests of Ala, in Akure North, Ondo State, a border town with Edo State by storm, and when the dust finally settled, a huge cache of cannabis, weighing 181.2 tons which were concealed in three warehouses inside the reserved thick forest were intercepted by men of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
A total of 5, 250 bags of the drug crop were discovered in the first warehouse, while 2,450 bags were found in the second warehouse, in addition to 98 jumbo bags of cannabis seeds. Stocked in the third warehouse were 1,100 bags in addition to 730 sacks of cannabis seeds.
Littered around the warehouses were 150 ordinary bags and 30 jumbo bags of the illicit substance. The agency also recovered two single barrel guns and expended cartridges.
The huge catch was one of the most successful end of year activity of the agency, which had vowed to continue to make the environment extremely hot for illicit hard drugs traffickers.
With the country battling challenges on many fronts, it becomes pertinent that drug problems do not also complicates issues.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has braced the challenge in the battle against the cultivation, sale and consumption of illicit drugs.
From January to October 2019, the agency said it made a total seizure of 555.3 tons of cannabis and arrested 5, 913 suspected drug offenders.
Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (rtd.), has vowed that the agency will not rest until the menace is checked.
In an end-of-the year clean-up of drug malfeasance in areas bordering Ondo and Edo States, the agency had embarked on the operation, which was a week-long combing of the forests notorious for cannabis crop cultivation.
The intelligence-driven counter narcotic campaign had led to the seizure of several tons of cannabis already harvested and heaped for onward movement to the illicit drug markets. No fewer than 14.3 tons of the illicit drug/crop were recovered from six camps raided by the agency’s operatives.
Abdallah decried a situation where it is becoming increasingly difficult to find virgin forests as a result of cannabis plan tations.
“We are now face to face with deforestation and soil degradation because of the operations of cannabis farmers who now penetrate thick forests, felling all economic trees in sight to pave way for their illicit crop. The same way they engage the under-aged who ordinarily should be in school, to tend their illicit cannabis farms.
“The addiction to drugs has become one of the serious social problems and it has proven to be the principal obstruction in the all-round development of the people, society, country and the world at a large.
Ours is a developing country and it is already afflicted with so many other grave problems, such as unemployment, poverty, illiteracy and insecurity, that the problem of drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking makes the situation even worse as it further makes our economy regressive by destroying the lives of its youth.
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“It stands against reason that some opinion leaders are clamoring for the legalisation of cannabis in Nigeria. This clamor is not only unfortunate but it is tragic, coming at a time the nation is grappling with the catastrophic consequences of abuse of pharmaceutical drugs like cough syrup with codeine and tramadol, which potency are not in doubt but are being recklessly abused.
Countries where cannabis is legalised have the institutional framework to control the use, coupled with the preponderance of treatment and rehabilitation centres which Nigeria can ill afford at the moment.
“As grim as the situation seems, government is not giving up on drug barons and users. Government is determined to bring everybody up to be a true Nigerian.
To achieve this, the agency needs the cooperation of parents who should take up the responsibility of moulding the character of their wards. Individual and corporate citizens should show more responsibility in investing in measures to prevent and counter drugs.
“We need to show courage rather than hesitation in our efforts to take off cannabis farmers off the illicit cultivation. Through the help of Alternative Development, cannabis farmers are supported with incentives that attract them to the cultivation of legitimate and economically beneficial crops.
Alternative Development is an approach being advocated by the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) aimed at mitigating the vulnerabilities that lead to involvement in illicit crop cultivation and ultimately eliminating such cultivation.
“We have hundreds of thousands of farmers affected by poverty, food insecurity, lack of land, instability who as a result, engage in illicit drug cultivation. By Alternative Development, state governments intervene through the provision of land, expertise, implements, seedlings, chemicals while buying up proceeds off farmers at an attractive rate,” he had said recently.
In the “Operation Thunder-strike IV Uzebba and Ihkin, two communities, Owan West LGA in Edo State, bordering Ondo State, which are notorious for the cultivation of cannabis, were the first to be raided by operatives of the agency.
According to a statement by the Principal Staff Officer, Public Affairs, Jonah Achema, one Ohimai Ayodele, a 51 year-old male titleholder in Uzebba, a notable cannabis merchant suspected to be the mastermind of the killing of NDLEA personnel earlier in the year, was apprehended during the operation. In an attempt to resist arrest, his gang had opened fire, injuring some of the operatives.
“A reinforcement of NDLEA and Army personnel stormed Ivbiodeohen forest in Uzebba where five different warehouses were raided with at least two tons of cannabis destroyed. One Ojeagbese Asabiya, 66 years, was arrested in a deserted locality where several cannabis nursery and transplant farms were discovered and destroyed.
Eight locally fabricated guns and several rounds of ammunition were recovered from the spots. Six locally fabricated cannabis compressing machines were also recovered from the camp.
“At Uteh, near Ifon in Ondo State, an operation lasted 24 hours as the operatives invaded and ransacked the Ajobieye forest, Owo Local Government Area leading to the destruction by burning of 1,225 bags of cannabis sativa, weighing 12,250 kilogrammes. A total of 414.5 kilogrammes and samples of fresh plants were brought to the office for prosecution purposes,” Jonah said.
The year 2019 appeared to have ended on a good note in the fight against these hard drugs on the one hand, and on the other, leaving illicit drug merchants with a sour taste in the mouth.
The operation, it was gathered, came with a high level strategic planning because of the volatility and ruggedness of the terrain.
The agency pulled its resources from the six geographical zones and got the collaboration of the military formations within the axis. A total of 45 army personnel joined forces with 329 officers and men of the agency to embark on the campaign.
The operational team was drawn from all the specialised teams of NDLEA-(Directorate of Operations and General Investigation, Tactical Team, Joint Task Force, Special Enforcement Team and Combined Inter-Agency Task Force and personnel of Edo, Ondo, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti State Commands). The Army personnel were drawn from the 4 Brigade, Nigeria Army, Benin and 32 Field Artillery Brigade, Owena Cantonment, Akure.
Haruna Gagara, State Commander, NDLEA Ondo State Command, who hosted the operation said. “The operation has caused a serious disruption in the drug market and has checked the likely influx of drugs during the yuletide.”
Gagara said the impact of the operation will be felt in the illicit drug market nationwide because about 80 percent of the cannabis markets across the country obtain their supplies from the states touched by this operation.
He noted that the previous operation targeted the planting and growing of the illicit crop, which succeeded in nipping in the bud several hectares of cannabis farms.
He assured that the agency is still awaiting drug merchants on the road to intercept cannabis shipments smuggled into the market. “I can assure you that we will sustain current efforts”, Gagara said.
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