Oluyinka Onigbinde
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Tin Can Command said it has seized various illicit drugs weighing about 1739 kilograms between January and July 2022. They are worth over N3.6 billion.
In a chat with our correspondent last weekend, the NDLEA Commander at Tin Can Port; Mr Muhammed Aminu Abubakar informed that the drugs seizures, which were mainly from Canada and India include Tapentadol and Colorado among others
Giving details, he said, “total drug seized till date is 1739kg, part of which 1500kg is Tapentadol; the Tapentadol is more powerful than Tramadol, then Colorado we have 220 kg and the total value of these drugs is around N3.6 billion, like Colorado they pack it in small sachets which is about 500 grams and in the street, they sell it up to N1.7million”.
Abubakar disclosed that with the huge seizures, Nigeria is now a consuming country, he however added that some of the drugs are on transit going to other parts of the world.
“It is still a fact that Nigeria is a consumer country; not only just a transit country but a drug consuming country, although some of these goods are also transiting to other parts of the world”.
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When our correspondent questioned him as to what the command is doing to tackle the open sale and use of illicit drugs within the port community, Abubakar said that the command recently celebrated the United Nations International Day against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
He informed that the awareness was taken to trailer parks and areas where users of these drugs stay.
He warned that: “Drug traffickers and their sponsors have no choice but to quit the port. We are not going to relent in waging war against them and their cohorts. We will continue to trace their modus operandi, hound them to their hideouts, arrest and prosecute them.
“Public enlightenment will be intensified to make members of the public wary of the antics of drug cartels in luring youths into drug abuse and trafficking. The Agency is sustaining the efforts via the initiative of the current Chairman Chief Executive NDLEA, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (Rtd), i.e., War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) of which we are all committed”, he said.
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