NDLEA seizes 148,595kg of cannabis in Ondo

The Ondo State Command of the National
Drug Law Enforcement Agency, said
confiscated a total of 148,594.9kg of
cannabis sativa, popularly known as
marijuana between 2010 and 2013.
It also said it secured convictions against
129 persons for various drug related
offences from 2009 till date.
Spokesman of the agency in the state,
Mr. Peter Archibong, told our
correspondent in Akure that the fight
against the cultivation of marijuana in the
Ondo State area had been taken to
greater levels since the state Commander,
Walter Nicholas, took over in April, 2010.
He said a total of 523.2 hectres of
cannabis farms had been destroyed in the
area since 2011. He said 129,853.62kg of
exhibits were destroyed between 2011
and 2012 and the agency secured a court
order to destroy additional 54,438.2kg, an
exercise that would be carried out very
soon.
Archibong said, “We have taken the fight
to them in the forest. A lot of those
involved have either changed their trade
or relocated from the state.
“We also engaged the traditional rulers
and other people in the fight because we
had to let them know that allowing the
traffickers to use their lands to cultivate
the drug was not in their interest.”
He noted that the intensity of the fight
cost the command the lives of two of its
officers between 2010 and 2013, stating
that the traffickers would not easily give
up, but fight to protect their illicit trade.
He said some officers were maimed
following injuries during engagements
with the traffickers.
Describing the mode of cultivation of the
drug in the state, Archibong explained
that the cannabis farm owners would
often go deep into the forest where law
enforcement agents would find it difficult
to locate, then they would traffic children
and other cheap labourers from distant
states, blindfolding them at night as they
walked long distances into the forest so
they would not find their way out on their
own.
He said the enlightenment of the people
of Ondo State had weakened the traders
as they no longer found it easy to recruit
labour from within the communities.