Raising ideological responses against drug abuse and trafficking

The rounds of the interception of hard drugs by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have come to assume a dimension reflecting an entrenched network of the misadventure of drug trafficking in the Country. Reports of such interceptions and seizures have come to assume the successive turn of building up a profile which reflects the toll of events with weekly accounts that poses alarming concern. Operation report of the NDLEA for last week revealed the Agency intercepted no less than 2,060 kilograms of assorted drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis, tramadol and rohypnol in various operations at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Lagos as well as Ondo, Edo, Kano, Kaduna, Plateau and some courier companies. Two consignments of heroin weighing 4.40kg and 550grams were intercepted on October 6 and 15 respectively at the cargo shed of the MMIA, Ikeja.  According to reports, the first was seized at the SAHCO import shed of the airport when it was discovered inside bags of granulated sugar and flour from Johannesburg, South Africa via Addis Ababa to Lagos on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.  Two suspects; Chukwuemeka Ugochukwu, a freight agent that cleared the consignment and one Kabiru Aminu, a stock keeper that was to collect the cargo for onward distribution to recipients were arrested for further investigation. A statement by the Director, Media & Advocacy, of the Agency, Femi Babafemi, stated that in a follow up operation on 9th October, one Adeoya Segun Joy who was to collect the luggage from Kabiru Aminu was arrested at Ajao estate while Enahoro Emmanuel Annointing who was also assigned to collect the consignment was nabbed in Abule-Egba area of Lagos. “Both were acting on instructons from their partners in South Africa,” the statement read.

Accounts from the statement contained that: “The second consignment discovered at the SAHCO export shed and concealed in walls of 10 cartons laced with tailoring materials, was heading to Malaysia via Addis Ababa on Ethiopian cargo airline, while a freight forwarding agent, Ekpe Samson Victor was arrested in connection with the illegal export.Attempts by another freight agent, Igwe Okoye Onwukwe to export two consignments of cannabis to the United Kingdom have been foiled by NDLEA operatives. The first attempt was made on October 15, when Igwe Okoye Onwukwe presented a carton of 16.55kg cannabis for export to UK at the NAHCO export shed where he was promptly arrested. Curiously, another consignment of 15.85kg cannabis also heading to UK and intercepted on 20th October, was traced to Onwukwe as the owner even while still undergoing investigation in custody.

“In Ondo state, two persons; Uchenna Obodo Ali, 22, and Tochukwu Eno, 20, were arrested with 302kg of cannabis when operatives raided a warehouse in Emure forest, Owo LGA on Friday 22nd October. In Kano, a 45-year-old driver Mohammed Haruna was arrested with 10,161 sachets of Tramadol and Rohypnol tablets and capsules while conveying the illicit drugs in a bus for distribution. Likewise in Kaduna, another suspected fake soldier, Abiodun Ademoya, from Akure south in Ondo state was arrested in Zaria with 11.6kg of cannabis. Also in Plateau, operatives intercepted a Yola bound mass transit bus, with registration number FKY 341 ZA belonging to Gombe Express coming from Lagos, along Jos-Abuja Road, within Riyom LGA. One of the passengers, Ahmad Musa Musa, 32, was found in possession of 22 pellets of compressed Cannabis Sativa with a total weight of 15kg concealed inside a black bag.

“In a most audacious move, a nursing mother, 35-year-old Mariam Drissu was arrested at the Edo state Command headquarters of the Agency, on Thursday 21st October while trying to smuggle drugs into the cell for a suspect in custody.  Officers on duty had while searching the food brought by Mariam for her relation in custody discovered two cups of “Loud” cannabis weighing 13grams buried inside the food (akpu) meant for the suspect in custody. In the same vein, officers of the Edo State Command, also, on Thursday raided a Cannabis farm measuring 3.210691 hectares, in Ayegunle forest, Akoko Edo area of the state, destroyed the plantation and evacuated 100 bags of harvested cannabis weighing 1,639kg, while a suspect, Samuel Ochonogor, was arrested in the forest with 66.7kg of cannabis.

“At some courier companies in Lagos, over 4.5kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in palm fruit tins, artwork, bottles of cashew nuts, auto spare parts, and picture frame going to Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Qatar were intercepted by operatives of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigations, DOGI, of the Agency.”

In a statement on Sunday, 17th October, signed by its Director, Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA had disclosed that in the preceding week it intercepted various drugs with cumulative weight of over 153, 256.876 kilograms. The Agency had also disclosed that it arrested no less than 663 suspects in various States within the same period. It was disclosed that among the 663 suspects arrested were a youth corps member, a police officer and a soldier suspected, all suspected to be fake.   The statement revealed the NDLEA operatives had raided notorious drug joints in Lagos, Abuja, Benue and other parts of the Country last week. The statement revealed while a suspected fake Assistant Superintendent of Police Joshua Yusuf, who claimed to be serving in Kano, was arrested along Gwagwalada expressway conveying 45.5kg of Cannabis, a suspected fake soldier, Abel John, was arrested along Apir-Makurdi-Aliade road, with 3.5kg of cannabis on Wednesday, Oct. 13; just as in Benue State, a youth corps member, Paul Ndubuisi, was arrested among others with different quantities of drugs.

Sunday 12th September, the Agency had disclosed that in preceding week it intercepted and seized over 24, 311kg of heroin, codeine as well as Arizona and Colorado variants of cannabis in recent drug busts at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja and the Tincan seaport, Apapa, Lagos. That came barely a week after the Agency intercepted N6 billion worth of Amphetamine, popularly known as jihadists drug, at the Apapa port in Lagos. It would be recalled the early September, the NDLEA had disclosed that it had seized illicit 2,776,000kg of drugs worth over N100 billion between January and August 2021 and arrested 8,634 suspected drug traffickers including 6,461 males and 547 females, during the period. The Agency had further disclosed that it also destroyed 1,202 hectares of cannabis farms in various States across the Country, while it also disclosed that more than 10 million Nigerians abused drugs in the period under review. According to the Agency, as at September 06, it had secured 1,630 convictions, 3,232 cases in court and over 4,269 drug users counselled and rehabilitated between January and August.

While it has been argued that the scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a contributor to recent upscaling of drug trafficking and its abuse, it is known that new dynamics such as the course of pushing for the legalisation of cultivating cannabis in Nigeria, has become topical issues. Recently, on the nexus between drug abuse and insecurity threats, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) had been quoted: “Perpetrators will go through the criminal justice system, with their fundamental human rights being strictly upheld. Against the backdrop of the strong linkage between illicit drug consumption and insecurity, it is worthy of note that Nigeria made its first seizure of 74.119 kg of Captagon brand of amphetamine, presumably destined for use, to fuel insurgency and other violent crimes and criminalities, which Nigeria is currently grappling with. Nigeria is happy to report that the EU funded, UNODC sponsored Cannabis Cultivation Survey is expected to bring to the fore the full extent of cannabis cultivation in Nigeria and make it easier to target measures to contain this perennial menace. It is worthy of mention here that one of the challenges of the pandemic is the proliferation of online sale of drug cookies and use of courier services to move illicit drugs.

“However, we were able to intercept, trace and dismantle most of the drug cells involved. This constitutes a clarion call for all nations of the world to unite in adversity by taking concerted and well-coordinated actions at national, regional and international levels to address and counter the world drug problems, through evolving drug control policies, effective crime prevention mechanisms and complete overhaul of the criminal justice system.”

The prevailing situations have only pose threats against the Country, the reality is that only coordinated efforts is required to change the narratives. Since, the force of operations have only continue to record increasing reports of interceptions and seizures, it has become glaring that the inspiring ideology and contributions driving the misadventure is still very pronounced, such that the records of arrests and seizures have not pose enough deterrent to make the escapade unattractive. Hence, the need to take the campaign beyond force patterns, to incorporating strategic institutional mechanisms to raise societal structures as social response that responsively expose the escapades as an ill young people must steer clear from, is sacrosanct.

The need to strategically bring the teeming teens population under the structure of target by ways of looking forward to building an ideology of a growing generation who see drug trafficking and its abuse as an ill against personal and collective responsiveness is sacrosanct. Since it has become registered by records that young people dominate the menace of drug abuse and trafficking, it becomes sacrosanct that as enforcement operations are sustained to clampdown on the subsisting perpetrators on the network chain of the sharp practice, the need to raise institutional structures that appeals to developing ideological resistance among upcoming youths against the sharp practice is paramount. Hence, it has become instructive that the only approach to nipping the menace in the bud, is an elaborate outlook that encapsulates the contribitory parameters of the workings of all meaningful societal institutions to build ideology of resistance against the menace. The orientation of such campaign should hence strategically look forward to social responses that proactively drives ideological patterns of resistance against the phenomenon.