Fortifying campaigns against drug trafficking with stiff deterrent parameters

The tentacles of trafficking and trade in hard drugs have continued to wax stronger even as law enforcement operations continue to hunt after perpetrators of the crime. It is more or less apparent that the operations of law enforcement agents have largely not carried enough parameters of deterrence to deter misadventurers in the sharp practice to desist from the illicit venture. More and more reverberating notations of incidents reflecting the expanding wings of the phenomenon have been rife recently. On Wednesday, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) disclosed that it has intercepted and seized 200 million kilograms of assorted drugs with a street value of over N80 billion in about 100 days. The NDLEA chairman, retired Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa, while making the disclosure when the Acting Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Wednesday, in Abuja, said that over 2,100 criminals had also been arrested in connection with the seizures with over 350 convictions secured. According to him, banditry, terrorism and other related crimes were generally triggered by intake and consumption of illicit drugs.

It was also on Wednesday reported that a trans-border trafficker named, Emeka Okoro and another drug dealer, Ibrahim Bello, were arrested in Abuja by operatives of NDLEA with cocaine weighing 1.1kilogramme, which has a street value of N264million. According to report, while Okoro was intercepted with 900grammes of cocaine in a commercial bus along Abuja-Gwagwalada road on Monday 26th April, 2021 based on intelligence, Bello was nabbed with 200grammes of the illicit drug in Zuba area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, same-day through a controlled delivery operation.

According to the Commander, FCT Command of the Agency, Mohammed Malami Sokoto, Okoro was an intending traveller to Libya through Kano and Agadez in Niger Republic, with wraps of cocaine weighing 900 grammes while the other seizure of 200 grammes was equally made following intelligence on the 26th April, 2021. The Commander was quoted: “The wraps of cocaine were not to be swallowed as has always been the case, but to be concealed in Jerry cans of palm oil and transported through the border in Kano to Agadez and Libya. The suspect, Emeka Okoro revealed that this has been the trend in the past months.” Meanwhile, the Kogi state Command of the Agency also reportedly intercepted and seized 157.5kilogrammes of skunk concealed in false panels in a Peugeot J5 bus with registration number Lagos AGL 641 XW while a 43-year-old suspect, Christian Godwin, was arrested. According to the Commander, Kogi state Command of the Agency, Adewunmi Alfred, the suspect and his consignment were intercepted at a patrol point in Lokoja, the Kogi state capital. The Commander was quoted: “The skunk was sourced from Ikire in Osun state and heading to Masaka in Nasarawa state before our men arrested the suspect, seized the illicit drug and the vehicle used to convey it on Monday 26th April, 2021, Alfred added.”

Nigeria has had her fair share of records of social dynamics in recent times. The dimensional navigation however, has unfortunately been bending towards delinquencies that speak to reflections of social decadence. The evolution of several troubling phenomena have continued to manifest with offshoots of several disturbances. The state of turbulence which has engulfed the Country could be linked to the collision of a myriad of social delinquencies which have grown with expansive strings to constitute forces of disturbances ravaging the Country. These colliding forces could directly and indirectly be perused as underlying factors spurring the manifestations of other dimensions of socio-economic and political storms shaking the fabrics of the Country.

While there is a myriad of delinquent phenomena ravaging the entire societal fabrics of Nigeria, sharp practices in the Country have continued to have their tentacles expanding to assume forceful dimensions. Although, the immediate effects of some of these practices may not directly be isolated, it is imperative to note that their impact as the instigators of several other social decadence or better still, criminal escapades are potent enough in setting the Country on wildfire. The subterranean nature of the working character of this category of sharp practices portending impacts to spur other forms of criminal misadventures in subtlety, have not made much attention to be drafted towards addressing them appropriately. Thus, the attention given to them may be insufficient to curtail the impact they have in spurring other delinquencies which the Government and other social institutions may be struggling to curb. Therefore, while societal institutions particularly the government are struggling to overpower the forces of some social delinquencies producing stormy waves, the subtle character of some of the sharp practices aiding their operations may continue to put the concerned institutions on the radar of worries over the perpetuation of such phenomena despite heavy clampdown.

One sharp practice whose tentacles have continued to expand is the menace of drug trafficking. The trade which in recent times has grown its wings to disturbing heights, has been one sharp practice the Government has been unable to quell over the years. The practice which has its record for decades in the Country, is increasingly assuming troubling dimensions, particularly considering its direct and indirect impact on the social formations of the Country. However, the character of this sharp practice falling along the categorisation of those with subterranean effects as instigators of other forms of social delinquencies and crimes, have not made the Government among other social institutions to categorise same on the top cadre of stiffening threats against the Country.

Critical observations would reveal that trafficking of hard drugs and the use of same owe strong strings to proliferation of crime. It is well observable that the worsening of security challenges and several criminal tendencies have accompanied the proliferation of hard drugs in Nigeria. Hence, it may not be out of place to argue that the expansion of the tentacles of the trade of hard drugs and its abuse is a portent factor in the worsening profile of social delinquencies and criminal inclinations in the Country. While the causative relevance may relatively be indirect and the direct impacts not easily identifiable, the resultant impacts as instigators of other social ills and criminal dispositions have been portent. It is inarguable that perpetrators of several criminal misadventures are custodians and addicts of hard drugs. In fact, many of the perpetrators of inhumane malicious crafts carry out their mischievous escapades under the influence of hard drugs. Hence, the proliferation of drug trafficking, trade in hard drugs and the abuse thereof, may not be a coincidence with the worsening of social delinquencies and criminal inclinations in the Country.

On the part of the Government, employing a multifaceted approach towards addressing the menace is much more rational in perspective. It will be observed that the direct and indirect impacts of drug trafficking and its abuse are equally multifaceted, just as its expressive reflects in terms of the cause and effect definitions. Hence, blending social, economic, cultural, psychological, and political provisions to develop a responsive system to ground the structural networks of the menace is paramount. However, since the part of State’s instruments of force cannot be undermined in the campaign against breaking down the network of the illicit practice, it is therefore imperative for the Government to work towards fortifying its operational campaigns against drug trafficking with parameters of stiff deterrence, hard enough to deter adventurers of the illicit venture to look away from the sharp practice.