NDLEA discovers suspected cannabis village in Edo, seizes N1.4b worth of suspected cannabis

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Edo Command alleged that it had discovered a suspected cannabis village in Ukpuje forest in Owan West Local Government Area of the State.

Mr Buba Wakawa, State Commander of the Agency, disclosed this at a news conference on Saturday in Benin.

Wakawa alleged that the suspected illicit drug village had four large cannabis warehouses with a total of 233,778 kilogrammes of dried weeds suspected to be cannabis.

He disclosed that the substance had an estimated street value of more than N1.4 billion naira.

He also said that seven suspected drug barons believed to be running the cannabis trafficking syndicate had equally been apprehended.

According to the commander, “this is the largest single concentration of cannabis discovered by the command”.

He gave the breakdown of the substance to include 318 bags of 80kilogrammes, each weighing 25,440kilogrammes, 15,853 bags of 13 kilogrammes, weighing 206,089kg.

Wakawa added that while the total quantity seized was 2,249kilogrammes, others weighing 231,529 kilogrammes were destroyed at the farm.

The state commander ascribed the success of the operation to the enabling environment created by the new Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (Rtd).

“We took delivery of two new Hilux operational vehicles presented to the command last week.

“This is the first assignment of the vehicles and it turned out to be the best for the command.

“We are grateful to the chairman, and this is a clear warning that there is no room for drug barons in the State,” he said.

The commander added that the seizures represented a large chunk of the previous cannabis planting season.

“They planted, watered, harvested and processed the drug only for us to dispossess them of their labour, because their action is criminal.

“The warehouses are located in the heart of the forest, yet we were able to uncover them based on intelligence gathering”.

He noted that the Okpuje community was notorious for cannabis cultivation and trafficking as well as attacks on law enforcement officers.

Wakawa added that it took the combined team of NDLEA and combatant military personnel to overrun the drug trafficking syndicates due to the security agencies’ superior fire power.

He disclosed that the suspected drug barons included the chairman of vigilante in the community and six others.

The state commander disclosed that the joint team of NDLEA and Army officers that carried out the raid had a strength of 80 personnel, while the operation lasted from Thursday night through Friday night.

He said that the operation was jointly coordinated by the Officer in charge of the Strike Force, James Olanrewaju; the Principal Staff Officer Operations, Bisong Peter and Capt. Abdullahi Abukori.

He thanked the 4 Brigade Commander, Brig.- Gen. Musa Sadiq, for the logistics and personnel assistance that led to the successful clampdown on the cannabis syndicates in the area.

He described the synergy between the Nigerian Army and NDLEA in the State as an unbeatable force against drugs and related crime in the society.

“The suspects will be investigated and the case charged to court soon,” the commander said.