The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has recovered narcotics worth millions of naira from alleged peddlers in Cross River State, south-south Nigeria.
The State Commander of the agency Anthonia Edeh, told Voice of Nigeria that despite the COVID-19 lockdown last year, officers within the command recorded success through intelligence gathering and synergy with sister organizations.
Edeh stated, “despite the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown and the ENDSARS protests that crippled activities for most part of 2020, our agency took the opportunity to embark on intensive surveillance and through our intelligence led policing as well as good synergy with sister agencies, flash points were raided and dismantled. A total of 104 suspects were arrested.”
According to her, “93 males and eleven females were arrested. We also recovered 157.929 kilogrammes of Cannabis Sativa, 124.60grammes of Cocaine, 68-19 grammes of Heroin and 52.02 grammes of Psychotropic substance.
“As we speak, we have been able to secure 15 convictions at the Federal High Court Calabar in respect of drug related cases and they were sentenced to various jail terms. This was part of our suppression activity,” she affirmed.
Demand reduction
The State Commander hinted that apart from arrests and raids, the agency engages in what it calls ‘demand reduction’ activities where drug addicts are counseled and reunited with their families.
Edeh explained, “41 persons were counseled and reintegrated to their various families. The action was prompted by the negative impact of criminal activities such as drug peddling and trafficking, kidnapping, robbery, rape, murder and other vices, which required that we adopt a coordinated approach to deal decisively with the menace of addictions.”
She acknowledged the support of the Cross River State Government in partnership with other security agencies, saying “the agency carried out the operations through the Office of the State Security Adviser to the Cross River State Governor in collaboration with other sister agencies, each maintaining their statutory roles.
“Extensive investigation of various spots and locations was done before we embarked on the operations,” she said.
It would be recalled that the ‘Operation Akpakwu’, a special joint military task force set up by the Cross River State Government to tackle kidnapping, robbery and other criminal activities alongside statutory security agencies, demolished buildings owned by drug traffickers in Calabar with the support of the State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
Emmanuel Ukoh
