Chain of hard drugs & the restive posture to national courses
Reports of hard drugs and its trafficking have begun to assume fixture of records again. For this calendar year, it is not much expected that the rate of substance abuse and drug trafficking might record any downward slope. This is much close to sniff since there are no new approaches disclosed yet on tackling the illicit estate, apart from the subsisting operations which have seen more arrests, while the incursion into the trade of hard drugs continues to record high increase.
It was reported on Wednesday that operatives of the Seme Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, intercepted substances suspected to be tramadol capsules concealed with 200 package jumbo size adult diapers. A statement by the Command Public Relations Officer, Hussaini Abdullahi, disclosed that the offensive item laden in a 1X20 feet container has a Duty Paid Value of N1.45billion. According to the statement, the container with registration number, MRKU 9090415, was handed over to the Command on November 15, 2021 by the Republic of Benin Authorities under transit cargo system to Nigeria. It further explained that the container became a subject of watch by officers of the command as no importer or representative came forward to continue the process of clearance, which raised suspicion that prompted the process of a joint physical examination of the container, following the invitation of other security agencies by the Customs Area Controller, Comptroller B.M Jibo. Consequently, 200 packages of Adult Diapers, 100 cartons of Gabadol, 120mg, suspected to be tramadol, equivalent to 360kg were discovered during a 100 per cent physical examination of the contents. The diapers were reportedly smartly arranged at the front of the container, while the drugs were hidden at the back.
The statement partly read: “The Customs Area Controller, Compt. BM Jibo directed that samples be taken out officially and handed over to National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to ascertain and confirm the drugs, Gabadol 120mg.Consequently, the Command has also initiated a full-scale investigation with a view to fish out those involved in this illicit importation. The Duty Paid Value, DPV, of the suspected drugs and Diapers is One billion, Four Hundred and Forty Seven million, Nine hundred and twenty Seven thousand, Fifty Naira, N1, 447, 927, 050.00) Only.”
The phenomenon of drug trafficking in the Country has not been a new subject. The situation posed before the Country is one of an extended network of drug trafficking with grounded cartels driving the sharp practice. While arrests of dealers and seizures of hard drugs have been running increasing records in the fight against the misadventure, it has been observed that such does not suffice the demands to exterminate the strings of the escapades attached to the illegal craft. Operations of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have seen increasing seizures and arrests accumulating at disturbing heights. Seizures and arrests at international airports have shown how more Nigerians are devising several carriage methods to evade security checks to traffic hard drugs across borders.
Last November, the Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, had mentioned that no less than 15 million Nigerians indulge in the consumption of illicit drugs. Marwa who made the disclosure in an interactive session with Local Government Chairmen in Plateau on Wednesday 17, November, 2021 in Jos, had decried the surge in the distribution and consumption of illicit substances, adding that one out of seven Nigerians indulged in drug abuse. According to him, the surge in drug abuse had destroyed many youths and communities.
“As I speak to you, 15 million Nigerians use illicit drugs; one out of seven Nigerians take hard substances. There is no community in Nigeria that is exempted from drug abuse and this is why we keep having security challenges here and there. Drug propels a lot of negative actions particularly among young people; it is destroying our youths and even the communities,” Marwa had said.
The devastating impacts of hard drugs on the Country cannot be underestimated. From the proliferation of crime rate to several other delinquent acts, the chain of hard drugs has been posing threats of insecurity, irresponsibility, and value degeneration against the Country. It is no doubt that the heightening of these clusters of illicit misgivings deforming the character of the Nigerian society owe part of their propelling force to substance abuse. It is largely glaring that the chain of the network from production, trafficking to consumption of hard drugs are ridden and associated with criminal acts which do not portend good omen for the Country.
The erosion of moral behaviour and responsiveness to good conducts and obligations is gradually rooting deeper as more youths indulge along the lines of the chain. This remains largely unfavourable for the Country, at a time where the alertness, strength and innovativeness of the youth driven by the depth of ingenuity is much demanding to pull the Country out of the mire of underdevelopment.
It is known that addiction to drugs is killer to ingenious composition and responsiveness to personal development. The aggregation of such restive and unresponsive posture among a large population would only pose catastrophic consequences for the nation. It has become imperative, therefore, for the Government to fortify strategic parameters to develop structural measures of systemic responses of broad architecture to tackle the misadventures associated with the chain of hard drugs.
