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Tag: NDLEA

  • NDLEA seizes N2.8b drugs at airport

    Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA) Lagos seized narcotic drugs weighing 455.215kg between January and June.

    The estimated street value of the drugs is N2.8 billion. In addition, $2.5 million dollars cash was intercepted. 75 suspected drug traffickers and money launderers were arrested in connection with the seizures.

    They are 62 men and 13 women.

    The intercepted money includes $2.1 million dollars seized from a bureau de change operator which had been transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation. 15 arrests were recorded on Emirates Airline. 11 were arrested on Qatar Airways, eight on Ethiopian Airline and seven on Etihad Airways.

    NDLEA commander at the Lagos Airport, Mr. Hamza Umar, gave a breakdown of the seized drugs.

    ”The seized drugs include cannabis sativa 138.304kg, ephedrine 133kg, methamphetamine 93.85kg, cocaine 43.426kg and tramadol 42.025kg. We also seized 2.5 million dollars cash within the period.”

    “22 suspects were arrested for ingesting drugs, 33 were caught with drugs packed inside their luggage while 6 others were found to have packed drugs on their bodies all in a bid to evade arrest. Thirty-nine (39) of the suspects were caught during outward screening attempting to smuggle drugs out of the country. Seven among them were going to China where drug trafficking attracts death penalty. 28 others were apprehended during inward screening operations with 23) of them coming from Brazil”.

  • How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (3)

    How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (3)

    In this concluding part of the series on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF, who has watched the agency for more than two years, examines how light sentences, poor funding and others have contributed to robbing operatives of the teeth to properly bite drug barons and couriers

    In February, last year, Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court, Lagos,  was livid with rage. Reason: men who are supposed to ensure drug couriers and barons get maximum punishment now conspire to help them escape with light sentences.

     The judge openly accused Abu Mohammed, an NDLEA prosecutor, of conspiring with the defence lawyer, Benson Ndakara,  to frustrate a drug case. The accused in the matter, Emmanuel Obiora, was eventually sentenced to five years imprisonment for importing 8.270kg of cocaine from Pakistan and for offering same for sale in Nigeria.

      A furious Justice Abang indicted both Mohammed and Ndakara of conspiring to conceal vital evidence to help the convict to escape justice. While delivering his judgment, the judge said his court would never be part of such unwholesome conduct. He then convicted and sentenced Obiora to five years imprisonment for dealing in prohibited drugs and concealing the genuine origin of the N14 million proceeds of the alleged crime, ordering that the five-year jail terms for each of the four counts should run concurrently. He also ordered that the N14 million proceeds of the crime be forfeited to the government.

    The judge, who relied on circumstantial evidence to convict Obiora, accused both the prosecuting and defence lawyers of colluding to help the convict to escape justice by withholding vital evidence in the case.

    According to Abang, the prosecuting counsel “for the reason best known to him” refused to tender the full voluntary statement in which the convict was said to have confessed to the crime, adding that: “The written address filed by the learned prosecuting counsel was of no help to the court. If I order investigation into this matter, heads will roll.”

    He said in addition to the refusal of the prosecuting counsel to tender the full statement of the accused, the lawyer also refused to corroborate the evidence of the fifth prosecution witness, Idris Zakari. According to him, Zakari had testified that the convict confessed to him and also wrote a statement to that effect on June 29, 2009, the day after he was arrested.

    “Learned counsel for the prosecution kept mute in his written address that the accused made a confessional statement. Whose interest is the learned counsel for the prosecution serving? Is he serving the interest of the prosecution, or justice? Or is he serving the interest of the accused person to escape justice? The attitude of the learned counsel for the prosecution is most unfair to the court and to the administration of criminal justice system,” he said.

     He was also bitter that Ndakara, also in his written address, pretended as if his client had not confessed to the crime.

    The judge said: “Is it that the learned counsel for the prosecution and the learned counsel for the accused colluded to frustrate justice? Is it that they colluded so that the accused can go away to enjoy the N14 million which he illegally procured? With regard to the unchallenged evidence of PW5 and the evidence contained in Exhibit E1 (a portion of the accused person’s statement tendered by the prosecution), it is my humble view that the accused person conspired with Sam Egunibe to import 8.270kg of cocaine from Pakistan to Nigeria.”

    The judge’s anger makes more sense when put in a wider context. For the records, part II (fourth schedule) of NDLEA Act, which specifies offences and punishments, says anyone who “imports, manufactures, produces, processes, plants or grows the drugs popularly known as cocaine, LSD, heroin or any other similar drugs shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to be sentenced to an imprisonment for life.”

    The same imprisonment term applies if anyone “exports, transports or otherwise traffics in the drugs otherwise known as cocaine, LSD, heroin or any other similar drugs”.

    A life sentence equally awaits any suspect who”sells, buys, exposes or offers for sale or otherwise deals in or with drugs popularly known as cocaine, LSD, heroin or any other similar drugs.”

    It is only those who knowingly possess or use the drugs mentioned earlier by smoking, inhaling or injecting that are liable on conviction to an imprisonment term not less than 15 years but not exceeding 25 years. However, as shown in Obiora’s case, most of the convictions secured by NDLEA hardly follow stipulated punishments.

    This is possible because some prosecutors do help the accused to doctor confessional statements for a fee. If a deal is struck, an incriminating statement can be swapped for a less indicting one, ranging from N200,000 to N300,000, depending on the weight of the issues involved and desperation exhibited by the defence team. It is said to be a cartel existing within the NDLEA, courts and the prison system. That is what made it possible for 197 convicts to refuse to serve their jail terms – 101 in 2005 and 96 in 2006 (see tables on convicts that evaded jail terms). Justice Gilbert Obayan panel report, which detailed how the cartel works and suggested how the agency can be reformed, was frustrated by the same cartel. The report was submitted to the government in 2007, leaving it to gather dust while the agency stinks in malfeasance.   Giade, in a past interview with this newspaper, said events had overtaken the report.

    Of 123 convictions NDLEA secured at the Federal High Court Lagos in 2014, made up of 117 men and 9 women, sentences ranged from one day to 15 years for various drug offences. Justice Musa Kurya sentenced a pregnant woman, Kudirat Bello, to one day imprisonment for possessing 33.3kg of cannabis, while 38-year-old Obinna Okeke was sentenced to 15 years with hard labour by Justice M. D. Idris for possession of 3kg of cannabis. Lanre Salami, who was arrested at Oshodi, lied to the court that he was 15 years old. The court later discovered that he was actually 17 years old. He was sentenced to 10 years for unlawful dealing in 400 grammes of cannabis. Salisu Usman, 42, was apprehended at Iddo Motor Park on his way to Zamfara, his home State with 47kg of diazepam. He was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour.

     Besides the evil of light sentences, there are ways that NDLEA operatives have devised to make life easy for drug suspects by helping them to get away with their heinous crimes. It is a cartel that operates within the agency and the courts, sometimes involving the prisons. It works using the power of bribe, blackmail and barefaced threats.

    In 2012, it became so irritating at a point that Justice Ibrahim Buba of the Federal High Court, Lagos, had to voice out his frustration. The learned judge was incensed that hundreds of accused drug criminals granted bail on liberal terms had jumped bail, a situation that cut across several other courts. The judge, clearly frustrated with the situation, scolded the NDLEA in court, sometimes having to issue several orders to the agency to re-arrest suspects.

    One tactics is to advise drug dealers to contract special defence lawyers, since big names among lawyers know the judges who are favourable and those that are tough, using some court officials to manipulate and make sure that their client’s case is assigned to a court that can play ball. That is why some judges grant bail to the suspects on liberal terms, with the stipulation that the NDLEA must verify the sureties.

    Yet the job of verifying sureties is done by the same set of people who will endorse any arrangement made by the defence lawyers – all done within the NDLEA. Unknown to the unsuspecting public, this seemingly harmless arrangement facilitates drug business in country. Having realised that Justice Buba’s no-nonsense stance is frustrating their unholy deals, drug suspects do everything they can to avoid his court.

    Poor funding, logistics undermine operations

    For a federal agency that is saddled with a mandate that touches on overall national security and public health, it is the shame of a nation that NDLEA is lacking in operational tools, logistics and equipment to discharge its functions effectively and efficiently. In most of its commands, the agency does not have operational vehicles, with only lucky commands that get the state governments to donate one or two vehicles to cover several local government areas. And if it is unacceptable that many state commands of this all-important national agency exist only in names, the zonal commands do not fare any better. As a matter of fact, only fortunate state commands occupy unfurnished edifices left behind by the defunct Social Democratic Party or National Republican Party, built during the ill-fated transition programme of Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida regime. Not only is it regrettable that the agency that was established over twenty years ago still remains ad hoc without any permanent structure at any of its state commands, the national headquarters of the agency in Lagos is sheltered in a place abandoned by the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA). Other sister paramilitary agencies established around the same time or even after NDLEA have since put up permanent office headquarters in Abuja.

    But the problems go beyond lack of suitable office and residential accommodation, a luxury enjoyed by other paramilitary agencies in the country. For a fact, NDLEA, an agency that is expected to police and apprehend moneyed criminals, cannot afford official vehicles for most of its state commanders, who are equivalent of Commissioners of Police. What that means is that any state commander who cannot afford a personal car has to go on official duties on motorcycles, or find other avenues to make ends meet. Some senior officers also told The Nation that the agency denies them of common logistics such as chemicals to fumigate cannabis plantations whenever they embark on destruction operations of cannabis farmlands in densely packed forests. That is why it is not uncommon for NDLEA operatives to carry ordinary cutlasses and walk several kilometers in the forests to locate illegal farms, as most activities in the agency are being done manually in today’s increasingly modern world. It is also lacking life jackets, helmets, hand and leg cuffs, as well as firearms superior to the ones being used by barons – thus exposing the operatives to dangers that regularly claim their lives.

    Also, at the state commands, operations are hamstrung by paucity of funds, forcing some state commanders to depend on handouts from all sources. According to some state commanders, what goes to each state command on a monthly basis is in the neighbourhood of N100, 000.00 (one hundred thousand naira) for the running of the entire command, which is said to be irregular. From this meager imprest, vehicles, buildings and other operational activities are maintained, including fuelling of vehicles and generators. And to make matters worse, some senior officers confided in The Nation that any state commander that wants to remain in the good book of Giade must make substantial returns on arrests, drug seizures and prosecution, failing which the commander is punished with either removal or being sidelined or both. Ofoyeju vehemently denied this allegation against his boss, saying incorruptibility is one of Giade’s selling points.

    But the management may not be directly responsible for the dearth of fund crisis that has been hitting the agency over the years. As if Nigeria is oblivious of the national security and public health implications of the war against illicit drugs, it hardly provides enough capital to prosecute the gargantuan responsibility of drug policing and control, putting severe pressure on operational and capital projects in the agency.

    “Funding of the agency, especially for operations and capital projects, has not been encouraging over the years and indeed a far cry from what the agency requires to carry its functions effectively and efficiently, as well as to sustain its modest achievements. With the perpetual dearth of funds, the management of the agency continually contends with serious challenges of prompt payment of expenses incurred by the personnel for official assignments. The continued accumulation of these claims has remained one of the most serious challenges to the agency’s operations,” said the 2014 NDLEA Annual Report.

    In more specific terms, with a staff strength of 5,150 in 2013, NDLEA was given a paltry N65,608,787 as capital expenditure, N536,293,912 as overhead cost and N6,067,598,587 as personnel cost to run its 49 formations across the country. But a worse financial quagmire handcuffed the agency in 2014, for out of N562,483,887 appropriated for NDLEA’s day-to-day operational activities, only 67.11 per cent was released. That same year, out of N183,399,762 appropriated for capital projects, a mere 37.8 per cent was released, thus crashing expectations on several contracts awarded that could not be backed with cash. In fact, it was so bad that by the time government was constrained to give N1billion lifeline called intervention fund to the agency in 2014, the chunk of it was gulped by payment of accumulated burial expenses for deceased officers, duty tour allowances, medical allowances for officers, and other staff claims. Even in 2012, funding for the agency did not fare any better. It took N100,000,000 for capital expenditure, N630,228503 for overhead cost, and 8,880,969,451 for personnel cost; just as it was given N61,282,731 for capital expenditure, N633,008,502 for overhead cost and 7,096,260,039 for personnel cost in 2011. By the 2010 when the agency’s overall staff strength was 3,332, it received N361,058,277 for capital expenses, N523,300,000 for overhead cost, and N5,828,168,363 for personnel cost. And with a workforce of 3,405 in 2009, NDLEA got   N160,000,000 for capital expenses, N343,000,000 as overhead cost and N4,117,358,361 as personnel cost. As one officer put it last week, the agency is not the only loser; it is the war on narcotics whose proliferation is killing the country.

    One drug agent to over 30,000 Nigerians 

    Unless more hands are urgently engaged, it is sheer mirage to expect wonders from NDLEA as it is currently staffed and constituted. Perhaps as a result of lack of foresight on the part of successive leadership of the agency, the war against illicit drug has been hampered by grossly inadequate manpower, which is not unknown to those at its helm of affairs. With a staff strength of slightly over 5,000, NDLEA is left with the precariousness of one drug agent to more than 34,000 Nigerians (using 173million estimate). According Femi Ajayi, former NDLEA DG, the agency needs at least 15,000 more hands to be able to do its work effectively.

    Unfortunately, the last time the agency recruited about 2,000 people four years ago, it was allegedly mired in fraud. Each of 450,000 unemployed Nigerians was made to pay N1,500, amounting to N675,000,000 to write the test. However, by the time recruitment was carried out, most of the lucky applicants were chosen without any recourse to merit or federal character principle. In a memo sent to the Senate committee on narcotics in February 2013, it was alleged that more than 20 per cent of those given the job did not apply at all, with more successful candidates from Bauchi where Giade hails from. For upward of three years, NDLEA deploy these recruits without training and arm them, blaming it on lack of fund. The petitioners asked, “Why were they not trained with the huge money expropriated from the over 450,000 applicants? How much does Ahmadu Giade actually need to train these men? What has he done with the over half a Billion naira that he made? Where is it? Did he pay the money into the federation account or such similar account of government? Is the Federal Government now taxing unemployed youths of Nigeria rather than give them job?”

    One agency, two political appointees

    For inexplicable reasons, the law setting up the agency has saddled it with a multiplicity of albatross right from inception. By its structure, the National Chairman of NDLEA is the Chief Executive and also Chairman of its board – an anomaly which insiders say has been breeding mediocrity, ineptitude, high-handedness, lack of respect for rules and regulations and absence of transparency in the agency over the years. In essence, the NDLEA Chief Executive who directs affairs is also the one who supervises the activities of the agency. As one senior officer recently mocked the agency, not only does every holder of the office run the place like his personal fiefdom, sycophancy walks on all fours in the agency, prompting serving officers to continue to write petitions against the leadership after the system has failed to address their grievances adequately.

    That is just a tip of the iceberg. Unlike all other paramilitary organizations in the country, NDLEA is piloted by two political appointees – a queer arrangement that is money-guzzling. Apart from Chairman/Chief Executive who exercises executive powers, the government is also empowered to appoint somebody as Director General who is expected to head the secretariat where there is none. Yet NDLEA, as an organisation, has its own senior officer who is a Director in charge of Administrations. What this means is that public fund is expended on two political appointees in one agency, since both the Chairman who is the chief accounting officer of the agency and the Director General who heads a nonexistent secretariat are on consolidated salaries. Even in the Nigerian Army where there is an Army secretary, it is an Army officer who is appointed, not a political appointee from outside. “Whenever any DG comes, he or she usually keeps quiet and makes his or her money because they are outsiders who know nothing about the agency. How can you be paying two political appointees in one agency? It is wrong? The law was badly drafted to squander public resources, which currently realities can hardly accommodate. Scrap either the office of DG or Chief executive and stick with one as it is done in all other paramilitary organisations in the country. The head of the place is supposed to be a DG or Narcotics General of NDLEA, being an enforcement agency.  If you appoint from within, the person will certainly be desirous of leaving a legacy, unlike outsiders who just come in after retiring from their original callings,” one senior officer said.

    Is NDLEA jinxed with leadership?

    On July 16, when it was announced that all the boards of federal parastatals and agencies had been dissolved, some top NDLEA officers told The Nation that they were instantly locked in an upbeat mood. In their estimation, the dissolution directive would sweep Giade, who they see as the biggest problem from the seat he has occupied since November 2005. Since the retired deputy commissioner of police is both the Chief Executive of NDLEA and board Chairman, the disbanding of the board would terminate his 10-year reign, they reasoned. They were dead wrong, as these aggrieved officers were shocked to their marrow when Giade resumed his seat the following day, having been advised that he was not affected by the presidential directive, being the Chief Executive of the agency.

    Although Giade’s seat is spared by the recent presidential order, his adversaries believe that he may not be lucky to wriggle out of an ongoing suit seeking to sack him from the plum job. At the moment, Giade is embroiled in a legal tussle at the National Industrial Court in Abuja over an alleged “tenure fraud.” In a suit filed by Emmanuel Maji, a lawyer in Festus Keyamo Chambers, Giade, who has had four Directors-General of the Agency – Dave Ashang, Lanre Ipinmisho, Femi Ajayi and Roli Bode George  – serve out their tenure under him, is accused of remaining in office even though his tenure had expired on November 24, 2009. In an affidavit sworn to support the originating summons, Maji avowed that the NDLEA’s boss continued stay in office without any evidence of renewal of tenure is only a “local and unlawful arrangement” between him and the then Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohammed Adoke. The plaintiff wanted the court to among others, direct that Giade be replaced by appointing a new person, while also praying for an order of perpetual injunction restraining the NDLEA boss from “further parading and conducting himself as NDLEA Chairman forthwith; an order compelling him to vacate office having exhausted his tenure, and an order compelling him to refund all his earnings since November 24, 2013 when attained eight years in office.” He equally wanted the court to declare unlawful all duties or acts he has performed after November 24, 2013 when his tenure (if he was reappointed) ought to lapse. The case is yet to be decided.

    Whichever way the pendulum swings, it is obvious the agency is in dire need of a total reorganisation as well as new direction. And whenever that is going to happen, some senior NDLEA officers insist that it will do the agency a lot of good if the person is recruited from within. This, they added, will help correct an anomaly of “trial and error’ that is often the case in the first one year or more anytime an outsider is foisted on the agency.

    “When outsiders come and fail, the public usually heaps the blame on the agency and we the officers,” lamented one officer.

    But he may not be far from the truth. A survey of the history of NDLEA leadership in the last twenty-five years shows that only the late Musa Bamaiyi (1994-1998) was chosen from the army, while Bello Lafiaji (2000-2005) was tipped to head the agency based on his background in the state security service. All other past chairmen of the agency – Fidelis Oyakhilome (1990-1991), Fulani Kwajafa (1991-1993), Bappah Jama’re (1993-1994), Ogbonnaya Onovo (1998-2000), Illya Lokadang (2000) – emerged from the police, including the incumbent Giade (since 2005), who was picked from retirement after serving the police for 37 years. Citing the example of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), which was a ragtag group of volunteers until 2003, top NDLEA operatives said NSCDC has left NDLEA behind because the paramilitary force started on a good note by recruiting its first Commandant General from within.  After twenty-five years, not a few believe that NDLEA is ripe for leadership under a career officer with evidence of sound experience in drug control and integrity track record that is backed with capacity and depth of knowledge.

    But for NDLEA spokesperson Mitchell Ofoyeju, Giade is the best thing that has ever happened to the agency.  He dismissed all the allegations against him, adding that the chairman had done all possible to deal with corruption.

    As shown clearly in his interview published in the first two parts of the series, Ofoyeju believes that “if you conduct an opinion poll among officers, you will appreciate the fact that those writing (petitions) are either non-existent or at best insignificant. Let me say this, nobody that loves the country will write against this leadership.”

  • How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (2)

    How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (2)

    Benjamin Salihu Ikani, a lawyer, joined the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a pioneer officer in 1990. Today, he is unhappy. After rising through the ranks in the Directorate of Prosecution to Assistant Director before he was made Director of Inspectorate, he was granted leave of absence in 2003, when he was appointed Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in Kogi State.
    However, upon his return to the agency in 2005, things started assuming a gruesome dimension for this officer. His offence: he was made secretary of the Justice Obayan Presidential Committee for the Reorganisation of NDLEA, which came up with far-reaching recommendations on how to reposition the agency. Perhaps because the committee submitted a scathing report about the mindboggling malfeasances rocking the agency, Ikani was said to have been singled out for reprisal attacks. After concluding the national assignment, he was promptly transferred to Ekiti State as Commander, a position lower than that of a Director that he was before his leave of absence.
    Not done yet, he was transferred to Yobe State as Commander before he was further, once again, demoted to Assistant Commander in Borno State in 2009, where he has remained till date after surviving two attempts to ease him out of service prematurely. Sadly for Ikani, he was last promoted in 2001, with several of his juniors having left him behind by at least three ranks.
    In the same boat with Ikani is Paul Audu, a chief superintendent of narcotics whose predicament is a public knowledge. Besides the fact that he was last promoted in 2006, this officer who is said to be a loyal and hardworking operative was posted to Yobe State in June 2007 as a prosecutor, and has remained there ever since. Not only that, he has been stagnated on a rank for almost ten years, with many of his former juniors now his superiors. It is so bad for him that he now works under an assistant commander (operations and intelligence) who used to be his junior officer. His offence: Daring to come up with an operational strategy to rake in some of the barons, leading to the arrest of Akindele Akimuluyi, an elusive drug baron, who was later convicted. In his petitions, Audu claimed that he was in the process of uncovering Akindele’s litany of assets, which would have led to the arrest of several other barons and dismantling of drug networks when Giade, fully aware of the efforts, directed that he be posted outside Lagos, first Adamawa and later Taraba State.
    But Ikani and Audu are not alone. Also in the league of unhappy officers is Anthony Ohanyere, a lawyer and alumnus of the elite Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies who is reputed to be one of the doyens of anti-money laundering laws in Nigeria. Despite his experience, Ohanyere has been stagnated on the same rank for the last 13 years. He is “languishing” in Enugu State as Commander whereas those junior to him are now directors at the agency headquarters. So is Wale Ige, a pioneer officer and holder of a PhD of many years, who is also an alumnus of the National Institute for Strategic Studies. Not only is this well-read officer stagnated, he now serves under a far junior officer in Adamawa State.
    The favoured ones
    Since Giade took over the leadership of the agency in 2005, tongues have never stopped wagging about his style of leadership. Many serving officers have alleged in their various petitions to the Presidency and the National Assembly that he thrives on sentiments. It is alleged that some operatives from a section of the country are being recycled within ‘juicy’ commands of their choice, while others not so favoured are stagnated in far-flung places.
    For example, there is a long-standing general practice in the NDLEA, which encourages constant redeployment of officers after four years in a command, be it juicy or dry. The aim is to ensure safety of operatives, among other things. However, this has been observed in the breach over the last ten years under Giade. That is why it is possible for Hamza Umar from Katsina State, an officer recruited into the agency in 1993, to remain as commander for seven years at Muritala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), which is regarded as one of the busiest gateways for drug trafficking into and from Nigeria. Despite having several other officers senior to him, especially those who joined the agency in 1990, Umar still calls the shots at MMIA.
    He is not alone in the league of beneficiaries of Giade’s alleged favouritism. Hamise Lawan, commander at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, is also from the North and has been there for eight years. Petitioners also complain that other cronies of Giade are recycled around Tin Can Island, Apapa Sea Ports, Kano and Enugu airports. Among the directors in the agency, there is one called Hussein Baba from Kebbi State, who has been director for the past ten years under Giade. He was said to have performed shamefully as director of Investigation and Operations, but he is redeployed as director in charge of Drug Demand Reduction unit where has been for the past three years without any meaningful impact on the agency and the war on narcotics.
    Unfortunately, like Baba, none of the officers that are alleged to be in Giade’s good book is known for any spectacular or extraordinary service delivery that is deserving of preferential treatment being meted out to them.
    Although the NDLEA boss, in the exercise of his powers, may reward exceptional hard work, devotion to duty and honesty by promotion, but this power is not without limitations. Under Giade, some officers alleged that this power has been confused with the unrestrained powers to award special promotion in addition to promotion to higher rank at the same time – which is seen as a blatant overkill. It is alleged further that not fewer than ninety percent of the beneficiaries of Giade’s special promotions are individuals who have done nothing special at all. That is why some officers are taunting the special promotions showered on Hamza Umar, Ahmed Suleiman Ningi, Sunday Drambi Zirangey, Okafor Olisaemeka, Usman Ali Wadar, Aweda Mathew, Osifuye Femi Johnson, Grace Badung, among others, which catapulted them over three grade levels in four years.
    As one unhappy senior officer asked, why will an “officer with a doctorate degree and a product of the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies be pegged on GL 14 for well over ten years while officers with first degree and have barely spent three years on GL 14 have been promoted to GL 16 by Giade’s special promotion?” As things stand, some allege that over 95 per cent of the officers on GL15 and GL16, as contained in Giade’s last promotion exercise, are manifestly junior to a good number of officers on GL14 who have been on this level since January 2000, 2001 and 2002, while most of the officers on Grade Level 15 and 16 now were barely due for promotion between 2004, 2005 and now. Those that are long due for promotion but still stagnated on GL14 for no fault of theirs are now being made to report to and carry out orders and instructions from those who are ordinarily their junior. This is breeding discontent in the agency, with an avalanche of petitions before the Presidency.
    Another issue which gets some mention in many of the petitions on the agency centres around how men who are supposed to ensure drug couriers and barons get maximum punishment now conspire to help them escape with light sentences.

  • How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (1)

    How corruption, leadership hamper NDLEA’s drug war (1)

    In spite of mammoth arrests, seizures and convictions of drug peddlers, the battle against illicit drugs is far from being won, as the criminal market continues to grow, drawing profit and impetus for organised crime. After keeping a close tab on the agency for more than two years, Assistant Editor ADEKUNLE YUSUF reports that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) requires an overhaul if it is to regain  its teeth to fight the drug war.

    It was in the wee hours – a time many residents were still asleep in an upscale housing estate in Akure, capital of Ondo State. Suddenly, a mild commotion erupted like an angry volcano, disrupting the tranquil sweetness of the night. In a gestapo-like manner, officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), apparently acting on a tip-off, swooped on a secret cannabis warehouse inside Shagari Housing Estate, spewing a shocking discovery that literally stole headlines. Many residents – who had their sleep abruptly cut short by the whoop of invading ‘warriors’ in 12  trucks – were shocked, as NDLEA operatives evacuated a staggering 34,030kg of cannabis with an estimated street value of N364 million from the criminal stockroom. Starting before the break of the dawn, the successful raid, which resulted in the single largest seizure of the illicit drug ever recorded in the state, lasted for more than eight hours that fateful Thursday, April 9, 2015.

    Basking in the euphoria of the exploits of his officials’ exploits, Ibrahim Abdul, NDLEA commander in Ondo State, boasted that his men would never rest on their oars until the state is rid of prohibited drugs. He named two arrested suspects, who he also paraded: God-day Chibuzor, 27, and Collins Nmor, 35, who are said to be cooling their heels in an NDLEA holding cell, assisting investigators in getting to the roots of the criminal network.

    “We began evacuation of the drug since 4 a.m. with 12 vehicles and the operation lasted over 12 hours. As we speak, three sensitive operations involving the destruction of cannabis plantation are going on simultaneously,” Abdul said.

    But that commendable feat was not an isolated case, as daily news reports are always awash with exploits of various states – drug seizures, arrests of suspected couriers, etc. More often than not, NDLEA officials in the various commands across the country risk their lives as they cross rivers, walk through valleys and ascend unwieldy mountains to access cannabis plantations. Because cannabis farmlands are usually tucked away in the far-flung corners of Nigeria’s vast forest reserves to escape the eagle eyes of ever-ready anti-narcotic operatives, their destruction operations are said to be quite cumbersome and hazardous – with dangers of predatory animals that populate the largely impenetrable jungles.

    That perhaps explains why NDLEA hardly raises eyebrows anytime the agency boasts that it has a superlative record in drug supply suppression index – in terms of size of drug farmlands destroyed, persons arrested and the quantity of drugs seized from couriers. As a matter of fact, in the last three and a half years, NDLEA has destroyed unprecedented hectares of cannabis farms and intercepted kilogrammes of narcotics, including cannabis, psychotropic substances, ephedrine, heroine, amphetamine, cocaine and methamphetamine. And with a staggering conviction statistics of 8,637 persons in five years – 1,509 in 2010; 1,491 in 2011; 1,718 in 2012; 1,865 in 2013 and 2,054 in 2014 – it will be difficult for any doubting Thomas to distrust NDLEA’s scorecard. “NDLEA has one of the highest criminal conviction scorecards among security agencies in the country. In line with our prosecution policy, all arrested drug traffickers are diligently prosecuted. Conviction is a top priority to us because it serves as a punishment to offenders while it also deters many from indulging in drug trafficking,” Ahmadu Giade, national chairman of the agency, bragged recently.

     

    Drugs, drugs everywhere!

    As alluring as the statistics on arrests, seizures and convictions are, they lie about the drug conundrum afflicting the country. Behind the façade of regular self-glorification headlines that cannot be tethered to reality is a country reeling under the pangs of a roaring drug business. From the north to the south, east to the west, there is proliferation of illegal drugs in all the dark and dank places in the country, as more and more people are losing their souls to destructive drugs, ranging from cannabis to heroin and cocaine etc. Although Nigeria used to be referred to as a drug transit nation, it is now fast becoming a haven for illicit drug manufacturers and consumers, with visible effects in major cities such as Kano, Lagos, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt, Onitsha, Owerri, Ibadan, among others, as people openly consume cannabis sativa (otherwise known locally as Indian Hemp), which is now commonly cultivated and consumed publicly in many parts of the country.

    Nigerians with criminal intents  regularly walk into the waiting arms of security operatives in many countries, with many drug barons and couriers alike falling for the guillotines, especially in nations where peddling in illicit substances attracts capital sentences.

    Last April, the world was jolted when Indonesia executed eight drug convicts, including four Nigerians – Jaminu Abashin, 41; Martin Anderson, 50; Okwudili Oyatanze, 41; and Sylvester Obiekwe, 42. The others were two Australians, one Brazilian and one Indonesian. Earlier in January, Indonesia also executed two Nigerians for similar offences, while eleven others are said to be on death row for drug offences. In China, Malaysia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Singapore and other countries where drug peddling attracts death verdict, hundreds of Nigerians have been reportedly executed in the last five years. A staggering number is said to be awaiting the hangmen for indulging in illegal drug businesses.

    Of course, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) used to label Nigeria in the 80s and 90s as a mere transit point for heroin and cocaine intended for markets in Europe, East Asia and North America, among other places. Besides Nigeria, other West African countries have also become veritable routes for smuggling large amounts of illicit drugs from South America into Europe and North America. Sadly, experts are worried lately that the new stark reality is that Nigeria is fast becoming a production ground for psychotropic substances, worsened by a drastic increase in the rate of drug abuse among the young segments of the population, since there is still large availability of these illicitly manufactured products despite enormous efforts by narcotics operatives to frustrate the drug market. Topping the chart of most drugs most abused in the country is cannabis, which is not only consumed massively in various forms, but is also widely grown distributed in many parts of Nigeria. Although the NDLEA flayed the report for not being scientific in its method of arriving at its conclusions, a recent UNODC World report fingered Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest use of illicit drugs in Africa. The same report also rated the country high, lauding it for having the highest seizure of cannabis in Africa.

     

    Operatives collude with barons, aid couriers

     As many homes are forced to wear the mourning clothes whenever their kith and kin play into the hands of public executioners in foreign lands, it hardly occurs to them that it is as a result of institutional failures in the country.

    Unknown to many Nigerians, friends and family relations who get caught abroad for indulging in criminal acts of drug trafficking are individuals who are at their wit’s end after the initial déjà vu for beating the security checks in the home country. Although NDLEA is always quick to deny it, discreet investigations have shown that it is increasingly common at the agency’s several commands for some bad eggs to collude with the criminals they are being paid to hunt and bring to book, giving them access to traffic in illicit drugs for a fee. As if the NDLEA is primed to be a house of scandals, some of unscrupulous operatives at the various ports of entry and exit have inculcated the treacherous habit of working in cahoots with drug criminals, seeking the merchants of death the same way a salesman looks out for customers to buy his wares because of the love for filthy lucre.

    Even if it is not a business that is transacted in the open, compromising narcotics control and policing is prevalent at the nation’s international airports and seat ports where officers that have been found most worthy by the agency leadership are expected to be posted. In fact, for every three arrests or seizures, it is disheartening that no fewer than ten will have been criminally aided to beat the security apparatus at most of Nigeria’s airports and seaports. Because the drug barons have evolved into a cartel with huge resources to grease the palms of willing operatives, the gates are easily flung open for easy passage, with each smart drug passenger parting with at least N1.5 million. As some corrupt operatives sometimes look the other way at the country’s entry and exit points to ensure safe passage for their partners in crime, some of their colleagues that man the various NDLEA commands in many states are not saints too, for it is becoming increasingly disturbing for the operatives to connive with criminals they are being paid to hound.

    But this is not unknown to NDLEA, as a few instances will suffice. In January last year, Ogun State command of the agency was alleged to be enmeshed in a scandal involving its commander. For allegedly tampering with exhibit money recovered from a drug baron in the state, Mohammed M. Mohammed was reportedly queried by the agency. As one of those in possession of one of the keys to the exhibit room, the commander allegedly broke into the room of the agency and stole exhibit money which were retrieved from drug barons and kept in the exhibit room. The amount he was alleged to have stolen was said to be in six digits. To forestall fraud and corruption, NDLEA encourages that the keys to the exhibit rooms are separately kept by three different personnel so that no single officer would have access to the room at any time. But Mohammed was said to be under intense financial pressure occasioned by the burial of his deceased mother. He was said to have needed money desperately and his relief was to break the exhibit room with his personal carpenter and made away with money recovered from drug barons in the state. The commander  fled to his country home for the burial of his mother. When the scam was leaked, Mohammed was contacted on phone concerning the fraud. In order to cover up, he allegedly sourced for funds immediately and deposited it in the account of another officer, identified as Saminu Sanni, who  withdrew the money at his Abeokuta bank and handed same to the exhibit keeper, Chuwang Bulus.

    Also last year, specifically in early August, many major national dailies feasted on acts of malfeasance involving some commanding officers of NDLEA in Ondo State who were alleged to be providing paid protection for drug barons in the state. When the dust raised by the scandal in Ondo was yet to settle, news of a bigger show of shame broke weeks later, as another set of drug cartel was unmasked in the agency’s command in Kaduna State. At the heart of this scandalous compromise were Mohammed Kaka Jibrin, the state commander, and Goddy Obainoke, assistant state commander in charge of operations and intelligence, as well as a coterie of other senior officers in the command who were alleged to be hobnobbing with drug barons for monetary gains. While it is widely believed even within the agency that mindboggling unprofessional practices are entrenched in the command, sources said luck ran out of these unpatriotic officers following a disagreement over the sharing of the loot and proceeds from recycled drugs after parties in the cartel felt cheated by the commander. Besides this, it was also discovered that the command was entangled in several unwholesome cases bordering on recycling of seized drugs and extortion of huge sums of money from arrested drug dealers in exchange for freedom. Scores of cases of arrests with considerable drug seizures, which were later compromised for huge monetary returns, were uncovered when the national headquarters of the agency beamed its searchlight into the scam.

    The ugly discoveries were said to be so overwhelming that Ahmadu Giade, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, who visited the command immediately, ordered the immediate detention of Suleiman El-Gandau, Isa Hayatou, Ikumelo Segun, and Alao Sulaimon Dawodu. He also directed the allegedly compromising commander and his deputy to hand over to Alabe Azinge Samuel, presumably to restore normalcy in the command and mitigate the condemnation that the incident might engender. Sadly for  Giade, some of the affected officers were alleged to be some of his favourites who had enjoyed unmerited special treatment under him.

    Another operative of the NDLEA who specialised in passing drug traffickers at the airport was arrested for abetting and aiding drug traffickers in June last year. Ibidayin Godwin, an operative attached to the command in Anambra State, was arrested at MMIA by fellow NDLEA officials. He allegedly abandoned his duty post in Anambra and flew to Lagos to pass a drug trafficker who was to use the MMIA to his destination. He was quickly picked up for allegedly aiding and abetting Adetoye Taiwo, a suspected drug trafficker, in smuggling 3kg of methamphetamine to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. But Ibidayin was not alone in the scam, for he reportedly fingered three others in his clandestine drug cartel: Taiwo Ososanya, Fatai Olawale Akera and Yusuf Olayemi Bankole. It was learnt some other senior colleagues were involved.

    To be continued.

  • Commercial activities grounded in Aba as angry traders protest alleged killing of members by NDLEA officials

    Commercial and economic activities were on Friday afternoon grounded along the busy Faulks road in Aba, Abia State, as traders from the popular Bakassi Line, Ariaria International Market in Aba, took the streets to protest the alleged killing of their members by officials of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

    Commercial banks and shop owners along Faulks road, A Line, Power Line gate I&2, Samek and Bakassi Line, amongst others, were forced to close early.

    Unconfirmed reports have it that two traders who were in the shops were killed by stray bullets from NDLEA officials who fired gun shots at drug dealers who were fleeing from an illegal drug bunk in the area.

    However, a source, who confirmed that many traders were injured during the protest, told our correspondent that only one person hit by the bullet died on the spot.

      Sources told our correspondent that other traders in the area also sustained injuries from the gun shots.

    The situation was said to have worsened when a group of another traders brought the lifeless body of one of those hit by the bullet and dropped his corpse in front of the police station.

    It was gathered that the angry traders went after the NDLEA personnel who ran into the Ariaria Police Station for safety.

    A report had it that some of the traders overpowered the policemen on guard at the police station and went after the NDLEA official, setting free some detained suspects in the police cells in the process.

    But another report had it that efforts by the traders to gain entrance into the police station to attack the NDLEA official was foiled by the efforts of the combined team of Police from Abayi, Eziama and other divisions in the city who fired several teargas canisters into the air to wade off the surging traders from gaining entry into the Ariaria Police Station.

     The police were later joined by army personnel who arrived the scene with about four patrol vans and an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) to repel the traders from entering the police station.

    As at the time of filing this report, staff and customers of various commercial banks on the road were still in their bank premises, even as traders whose shops were far away from the area could not go into the bank to deposit their cash.

    Efoorts to speak with NDLEA Abia State Commandant, Dele Akingbade, were futile, as he did not pick his calls.

    But the state Police Public Relations Officer, Ezekiel Udeviotu Onyeke, when contacted, said he was yet to be briefed on the incident, but disclosed that the state Commissioner of Police, Habila Joshiak was already in Aba to ascertain the situation

  • Angry traders ground commercial activities in Aba

    Angry traders ground commercial activities in Aba

  • MTN gives vehicle to NDLEA

    MTN gives vehicle to NDLEA

    Telecommunications giant MTN Nigeria has donated a security patrol vehicle to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Lagos State.

    The agency’s Director-General, Mrs Roli Bode-George, received the MTN delegation at NDLEA’s Ikoyi headquarters.

    Mrs. Bode-George said: “It takes the collective effort of stakeholders to win the war against illicit drugs. This show of solidarity is highly appreciated and will serve as a motivation to the agency.

    “This is in line with the fact that security is a collective responsibility. We are inspired that you recognise our role in promoting national peace and security.”

    On the MTN team were the Senior Manager, MTN Security Unit, Sunday Ngegu and Portfolio Manager, Economic Empowerment, Ms. Foyinsola Oyebola.

    Ngegu said the support project is designed to respond to issues in communities where MTN operates.

    “MTN is continuously operating in a very dynamic business environment with unceasing challenges and we believe that business can only thrive when the atmosphere is favourable.”

  • Why drug trafficking thrives, by NDLEA chief

    Why drug trafficking thrives, by NDLEA chief

    National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Chairman/Chief Executive Ahmadu Giade yesterday said drug trafficking persists because the most vulnerable substance abusers are not properly educated on the dangers.

    He said drug abuse is spilling over into countries lying on trafficking routes such as in West and Central Africa, which he said are witnessing increasing number of cocaine users, cannabis smokers and those who use amphetamine-type stimulants.

    Giade said prevention must start with a community in which families, teachers, youth leaders and mentors care about the vulnerable, and in which the needs of the youth are not lost in the development of broader national drug policies.

    He spoke in Lagos at the First West Africa Forum on Drugs (WAFOD), organised by the People against Drug Dependence and Ignorance (PADDI Foundation), with the support of the World Federation against Drugs (WFAD). It had the theme: “Mainstreaming health and child-right concerns in substance abuse policy, planning and programming in West Africa.”

    Giade, in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by NDLEA Director, Drug Demand Reduction Mr Baba Oseni, said drug use most commonly starts in adolescence when the brain is vulnerable.

    According to him, childhood is the time when drug habits are established, adding that it is crucial how a society protects children from drug use.

    “The international drug policy debate today focuses on drug-using adults and this has overshadowed the moral and legal obligations to protect children from drugs,” Giade said.

    Other speakers included Country Representative, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Mr Koli Kouame; a former Director, Drug Evaluation and Research at National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Mrs Hauwa Keri; PADDI’s director Mr Eze Eluchie, and Prof. Ifeoma Okoye of the University of Nigeria, Enugu, among others.

    Kouame, represented by UNODC’s Project Coordinator Glen Prichard, said West and East Africa remain vulnerable to the trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs.

    He said drug trafficking and abuse persist due to inadequate resources to fight the crime, limited understanding of the nature of drug problem, reactive policing methods, lack of modern equipment, inadequate technical know-how, and limited number of evidence-based prevention and treatment programmes.

    Eluchie said youths are falling prey to drug abuse, which manifests in increasing violent crime, fatal accidents, and domestic/spousal abuse.

    He rejected calls for drug use to be given legal backing, saying: “We cannot afford the risk of drugs being legalised. The push for its legalisation and de-criminalisation must be rejected especially as everybody agrees with the need to protect our health and our children.”

    Eluchie said those who deserve punishment and incarceration and those who traffic in drugs, and not the victims who consume them.

  • Pakistani jailed for heroine trafficking

    The Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday sentenced a 19-year-old Pakistani, Iftikhar Arslan, to 18 months imprisonment for importing 25.4kilogrammes of heroine.

    Arslan, a medical student, had pleaded guilty to the charge filed against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

    The offence contravened Section 11 (a) of the NDLEA Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation 2004.

    Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke sentenced him without any option of fine, and held that his conviction was in accordance with sections 281 and 285 (2) of the Criminal Procedure Act, Laws of the Federation, 2004.

    He held that the sentence would take effect from the day Arslan was arrested.

    The drug substance should be destroyed within 30 days if no appeal was lodged, the judge added.

    The convict was sentenced after the review of the facts by the NDLEA prosecutor, Mr. Fingere Dinneys, who said Arslan was caught last April 5 during the inward clearance of Qatar Airways flight from Doha, at the E-Arrival hall of Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja.

    He said the convict imported the banned narcotic without lawful authority and later made a confessional statement.

    Arslan, who pleaded for leniency, said he was surprised to find the substance in his bag.

    “I beg you my lord, have mercy on me. I don’t know how the drug entered into my bag. I am a medical student, my education/career is destroyed. I don’t have anybody here, my people are in Pakistan,” Arslan said.

  • Man dies of cocaine ingestion at Abuja airport

    A 32 -year-old Lagos based trader and suspected drug trafficker has died of cocaine ingestion at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.

    The suspect identified as Ndulue Emmanuel Obiefuna collapsed at the airport departure hall and was taken to a nearby hospital.

    The incident happened on July 5.

    He was an intending passenger on an Ethiopian airline flight to China enroute Addis Ababa.

    NDLEA commander at the Abuja Airport, Mr. Hamisu Lawan, said the suspect confessed to cocaine ingestion at the hospital.

    “The deceased collapsed at the departure hall and was being attended to by Port Health officials. The incident triggered our suspicion and a narcotic officer was assigned to monitor the development.

    “When the suspect’s condition stabilized at the hospital, he confessed to cocaine ingestion. At that point, the NDLEA took over the case from the Port Health Services. He later died while receiving treatment,” Lawan stated.

    Investigation revealed that the deceased hailed from Anambra State. Until his demise, he was a trader living in Lagos. It was gathered that the deceased decided to abort his trip after collecting his boarding pass.

    Chairman of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade, who described narcotic ingestion as a suicide mission, reiterated his call for a drug-free society.

    “Ingesting narcotics is a suicide mission. I sympathize with the family members.

    “Drug trafficking is a serious crime. It is a threat to public health and safety. The current trend of drug ingestion by drug traffickers in disregard of the grave health implication must be condemned by all. People must shun drug trafficking and support the anti-drug campaign.

    ‘We must collectively intensify counter-narcotics efforts by talking to at least one person daily on the dangers of drugs and benefits of a drug-free society,” Giade stated.