70 Nigerians arrested for drug offences-official

70 Nigerians arrested for drug offences-official

Saturday, December 27, 2014 2:37 pm


Ahmadu Giade, Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency

Ahmadu Giade, Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency

The Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in Ebonyi State, eastern Nigeria, Raphael Igwenagu, on Saturday disclosed that the agency secured 70 convictions in the state alone in 2014.

This is the highest level of conviction ever secured since the inception of the Ebonyi State command of the agency.

Igwenagu, while recounting the activities of the agency in the state in between January and December, 2014, further said that the command seized 1.6 tons of drugs within the period.

“I commend the effectiveness, commitment and the precision handling of drug related cases by the judiciary in Ebonyi.

“Political activities often results in youths being used as thugs to consume hard drugs which gives them false strength to perpetrate violence,” he told a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.

The commander further recalled that the agency had secured the conviction of 25 persons in 2013 and seized 520 kilogrammes of drugs, while in 2012, 300 kilogrammes of drugs were siezed in the state.

He described the volume of seizure in 2014 as unprecedented, attributing it to the resumption of political activities and the more aggressive strategies adopted by various enforcement agencies in the state stressing that the agency would intensify efforts in 2015 to prevent and control the use of hard drugs by youths across the state.

“We would also enhance activities in public enlightenment to inform the general public, especially the youths on the inherent dangers of hard drug consumption and peddling.

“This is essential because public enlightenment is key to our operations, it helps to educate them on the consequences of hard drug consumption or peddling and to prevent the public from venturing into it,” he noted while appealing to the Federal Government for more funds and logistics to enable the agency perform more creditably.


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