Fight against drug abuse: Well meaning Nigerians must campaign against the vice
The preponderance of sharp practices in Nigeria have continued to wax gross most recently. The value of transactions exchanging hands through illegal networks appears to be mind boggling. The worsening profile of economic fortune in the Country, has been alluded to as the necessary instigator of the expanding adventure of illicit trades in the Country. Trade in hard drugs has recently graduated to a disturbing height. The threats that the trade and abuse of hard drugs pose to the socio-economic formation of the Country, is practically one which effectively cut across all spheres of the formative composition of the Country.
Trafficking of hard drugs in and through the Country has been a phenomenon which the Government has found difficult to address over time. While the Government has continued to make mention of tackling the menace, the reports of arrest which continue to surface in recent times, continue to reveal the depth of transactions exchanging hands from the sharp practice. Over the weekend, reports revealed that Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested a suspect, named, Ejiofor Enwereaku, with 36 blocks of cocaine weighing 27.95km with a street value of over N8billion. The suspect who was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos on Friday, had reportedly negotiated to buy his way out with huge sums.
According to the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday titled: ‘NDLEA intercepts N8bn cocaine, arrests drug kingpin at Lagos airport,’ the suspect was the leader of a syndicate, which allegedly specialised in using unsuspecting travellers for trafficking cocaine to various countries. He narrated that based on intelligence, the operatives of the Agency at the MMIA, had on 9th May intercepted a bag that arrived at the airport from Gru, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on an Ethiopian Airline flight with baggage tag number ET331199, which was disclaimed by an arriving passenger on the flight. He further mentioned that the disclaimed bag was thereafter secured by the NDLEA operatives for investigation.
The statement had read in part: “On Sunday, May 9, 2021, a man came to the airport to make inquiries on how to get the disclaimed bag released. He was promptly arrested for investigation. The disclaimed bag was opened in the presence of the arriving passenger and the man, who came to negotiate the release of the disputed bag. When it was opened, it was found that the bag contained 36 blocks of cocaine weighing 27.95kg. A follow-up sting operation was carried out, which led to the arrest of Ejiofor Felix Enwereaku, the prime suspect, on Friday, May 14, upon his arrival from Addis Ababa onboard an Ethiopian Airline flight. During preliminary interrogation after his arrest, he confessed to have been contracted by his Ethiopian associate, who is a notorious drug baron, to claim and push out the consignment in Lagos, Nigeria. He further admitted to have paid $24,500 bribe in three tranches to compromise the NDLEA officers. The first was $10,000 delivered through his representative in Lagos and another $10,000 via his First Bank account, while the third tranche of $4,500 was paid at the point of his arrest.”
The need for the Government to take the fight against drug trafficking beyond the use of force is paramount. While force is a firm instrument in prosecuting the fight, the prevailing reality reflects that addressing the phenomenon demands interfacing networks of strategic measures. This is paramount given the deep rooted dimension the menace has assumed with the attendant multifaceted threats it poses to the entire society.
The relativity of abuse of hard drugs and the preponderance of criminal escapades have been established to be clearly intertwined. Studies have come to establish that heinous crimes are largely perpetrated under heavy influence of hard drugs. Such mischievous elements as robbers, kidnappers, bandits, fraudsters and hoodlums, among others troubling societal tranquility, are known to be addicts and abusers of hard drugs who under the influence of same are emboldened to carry out their escapades.
As the proliferation of drug trafficking continues to deepen, its attendant abuse have been on the rise with the corresponding heightening of criminality across the Country. It is therefore essential for the NDLEA and all concerned law enforcement agencies to employ multi-layered approach to addressing the menace. This is paramount to strategically dismember the network of the phenomenon from the connecting chains; beginning from the source, production, supply, exchange and consumption lines. Giving a holistic approach to firmly clamp down on each of the layer is essential to disorganise the networking channels of the illicit menace.
More importantly, it is important for the Government to scale up enlightenment on the dangers in the trade, traffic and abuse of hard drugs. Such enlightenment should be strategically designed to appeal to the sensibilities of young persons and adolescents more of whom are now being lured into the ill. It is important for such enlightenment to be sustained over time as a conscious campaign strategy to build an ideology around orientations that frowns against activities on hard drugs. It is equally important for behaviour moulders and gate keepers as the religious institutions, parents/guardians, political leaders, and leaders in the social space, to wake to the responsibility of standing at the vanguard to lead a campaign against the menace by creating awareness over the human, socio-economic, political, and cultural among other wings of dangers of the phenomenon. The entire Country has recently been enmeshed in confusion from the collision of multiplicity of social ills. It is important for all well meaning Nigerians to rise to the task of rebuilding and ameliorating the weakening fabrics of the Country.
