Like those generals who used to discover that nuclear weapons were not a good thing about twenty minutes after they took off their uniforms and started collecting their pensions, we have had a parade of former presidents who knew that the war on drugs was a bad thing - but only mentioned it after they were already ex-presidents. Now, at last, we have one who is saying it out loud while he is still in office. President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, the country that has suffered even more than Mexico from the drug wars, is an honest and serious man. He is also very brave, because any political leader who advocates the legalisation of narcotic drugs will become a prime target of the prohibition industry. He has chosen to do it anyway. [continues 615 words]
Delegates attending a drug abuse conference in Mombasa yesterday came face-to-face with the crisis facing addicts at the Coast General Hospital. The international and local delegates were shocked to find that the government and other agencies had failed to meet the standards for running a rehabilitation centre. They lack adequate staff, food and detoxifying medicine for the rehabilitation centre, which was started late last year. Several challenges Because of the shortcomings, the number of drug addicts seeking treatment at the centre has fallen. [continues 307 words]
When the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in Bauchi State, started its fight against crime, it discovered that 75 percent of youths in the state were under the influence of drugs. This explains why criminal activities are increasing everyday in the State. Apart from youths who get involved in drug abuse, others engage in the sale of hard drugs because it is seen as a lucrative business and a ready source of income. Some of these drug merchants are highly placed persons in the society. The Agency collaborated with all the security agencies in the State in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of suspects in courts. [continues 843 words]
The Story Is Not Only Bizarre, It Is Scandalous. Information From Ejisu Bisease in the Ashanti Region Indicates That the Chief of The Town, Nana Akwasi Acheampong, Has Incurred the Wrath of Teachers In the Town, Following a Severe Beating He Allegedly Inflicted on A Teacher, on What May Be a Trumped-Up Charge. An Accra daily newspaper reported yesterday that Mr. Francis Carter, a French teacher of the local Municipal Assembly Junior High School, took some friends to a drinking spot in town. While the teacher and his guests were taking it easy, a man appeared and claimed that he could smell the scent of marijuana, known in local parlance as 'wee'. [continues 376 words]
The Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade, has called for the implementation of fifteen years minimum sentence for drug culprits in line the NDLEA Act. The NDLEA boss who supervised the public destruction of drug exhibits worth 9.2 billion naira at the Agency's office complex Badagry, Lagos on Friday May 6, 2011 said that stiffer punishment will help to address the drug problem in our society. Giade noted that the Agency had recorded a giant stride towards a drug and crime-free society with the destruction of 7,970.8182kg of seized and forfeited narcotics in Lagos State. The Event was witnessed by both local and international stakeholders including the Commanding Officers of the Nigeria Army at Badagry, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the South Africa Police attache in Lagos and other heads of security Agencies. [continues 376 words]
It could be the first step in fulfilling the hazy dream of many a reggae artiste. Marijuana, considered as dangerous as cocaine and heroin in the statute books, remains illegal in all East African countries. However, this may change. In June last year, Rwanda took the initial steps in legalising marijuana strictly for medical purposes, the first country in Africa to do so. The proposed law provides that marijuana will only be administered in health institutions to relieve pain or to treat mental problems. [continues 1234 words]
TWO Patriotic Front officials from Munali Constituency yesterday stormed the Post Newspapers head office half dressed in protest against the killing of a seven-year-old boy in Garden Compound by DEC officers. PF Munali Constituency Given Lwensha and his publicity secretary Mwenya Matafwali challenged women in the country to condemn the government on the killing of innocent children by police. The boy was last Tuesday killed while another minor sustained severe injuries after they were shot at by armed Drug Enforcement Commission officers after confusion erupted in the area as they were trailing a suspected drug trafficker. [continues 169 words]
THE Anglican Diocese of Lusaka says it is greatly dismayed by the law enforcement agencies' lack of respect and honour for human life. In a press statement released by the Anglican Diocese of Lusaka, Diocese Bishop David Njovu is demanding an apology from the government over the shooting of a seven-year-old boy in Garden compound on Tuesday by Drug Enforcement Commission officers. "The people they are supposed to protect are the ones they are killing in cold blood without shame," Bishop Njovu stated. [continues 304 words]
When Thieves Broke into Nonhlanhla's Home, They Took Her Most Valuable Possession: Her AIDS Drugs, Which in Urban Legend Are a Key Ingredient in a New Narcotic Called "Whoonga". Experts say whoonga doesn't actually contain Aids medication, but is rather a combination of heroin, rat poison and other chemicals. That hasn't ended the public perception that whoonga is laced with antiretrovirals (ARVs), sowing fear among people who depend on them for survival. "I don't know who the dealers are, but I know that they use kids to steal ARVs for them. In the township you see kids stealing the medication of their parents and selling it to the people who make whoonga," Nonhlanhla said. [continues 376 words]
Having a conversation with the former boss of the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), Mr Joseph Kaguthi, on the drug abuse problem in Kenya is extremely enlightening. Mr Kaguthi asserts that policymakers, civil society, and the citizenry need to arm themselves with the right information regarding substance abuse in order to assist in finding sustainable solutions. Everyone concerned should know, for instance, that substances causing the greatest harm to the youth are those that are legally available, not the illicit ones. [continues 549 words]
Alexandria -- Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality. Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man in this coastal city last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egypt's authoritarian president. The story of Said's death is in many ways the story of today's Egypt, where an authoritarian regime is being roiled by a groundswell of popular anger. Fear and resentment of the police has been a prominent theme, and when Google executive Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page titled "We are all Khaled Said," the grisly morgue photo went viral and the public had a rallying point. [continues 392 words]
ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT - Had it not been for a leaked morgue photo of his mangled corpse, tenacious relatives and the power of Facebook, the death of Khaled Said would have become a footnote in the annals of Egyptian police brutality. Instead, outrage over the beating death of the 28-year-old man in this coastal city last summer, and attempts by local authorities to cover it up, helped spark the mass protests demanding the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The story of Said's death is in many ways the story of today's Egypt, where an authoritarian regime is being roiled by a groundswell of popular anger. Fear and resentment of the police has been a prominent theme, and when Google executive Wael Ghonim created a Facebook page titled "We are all Khaled Said," the grisly morgue photo went viral and the public had a rallying point. [continues 564 words]
- - At youth group's school event At a time when drug abuse is ravaging Nigerian youths, a non-governmental organisation, Prince Decson Save Child Foundation, is pressing on with what could pass for palliative measures. The group is using seminars, workshops and education to keep youths out of drugs and other social vices. Recently, Prince Decson Save Child Foundation engaged students at Topfield College, Awodi-Ora, Ajegunle, Lagos, in a progamme aimed at educating on the evil of hard drugs. Tagged, "the effect of dangerous drugs on the Nigerian child," the programme, according to the group, aimed at "building a lasting and strong awareness, in the minds of youths, on the effect of drug abuse." [continues 456 words]
As tourists stroll languidly through the narrow streets of Stone Town, the romantic city hums with life. Vendors sell oriental spices and colourful fabrics, while children play soccer between crumbling walls and men hurry in long gowns towards the mosque. But when darkness descends over the historic town, Zanzibar's capital takes on a different life. Formerly bustling alleys are transformed into dim, shady passages where drug addicts hover to get their longed-for heroin fix. The town's dark secret: the island is a heroin stronghold. [continues 883 words]
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has attributed the current wave of violent crimes in the South-east and other neighbouring states to the consumption of Indian hemp and other dangerous drugs by secondary school students, a situation it warned would deteriorate if urgent steps were not taken. The anti-drug law agency noted that while it was grappling with curtailing the influx and intake of Indian hemp by school children, several of them have recently been caught with cocaine. Speaking on behalf the agency at weekend during the third annual symposium of the Inwelle Study and Resource Centre, Enugu, Mr. Fintan Bassey said a survey carried out by the NDLEA showed that crimes committed by students recently in Enugu were drug motivated. [continues 297 words]
Desperate heroin users in a few African cities have begun engaging in a practice that is so dangerous it is almost unthinkable: they deliberately inject themselves with another addict's blood, researchers say, in an effort to share the high or stave off the pangs of withdrawal. The practice, called flashblood or sometimes flushblood, is not common, but has been reported in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on the island of Zanzibar and in Mombasa, Kenya. It puts users at the highest possible risk of contracting AIDS and hepatitis. While most AIDS transmission in Africa is by heterosexual sex, the use of heroin is growing in some cities, and experts are warning that flashblood - along with syringe-sharing and other dangerous habits - could fuel a new wave of AIDS infections. [continues 848 words]
Lagos State, like many others across the country has its own share of social deviants, who indulge in all sort of youthful recklessness. From Oshodi to Oyingbo, Iyana-Ipaja to Lekki, Ojota to Ikorodu and Mile 2 to Badagry, it is common to see youths whose past time is drug abuse. When they are not smoking their lives away with cannabis or other hard drugs, they are reveling in hard drinks, including the local stuff known as paraga. Worried by this ugly development, particularly with its dire consequences on the future of those involved, Inside Ajeromi, community newspaper, penultimate Sunday began a campaign to sensitise the youths in the state about the danger of drug abuse and the need to keep off the habit. [continues 797 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Saturday raised the alarm over the threat to Nigeria's sovereignty by the activities of drug barons. The Agency warned that drug barons could infiltrate the highest levels of government and stall the drug war if their activities were left unchecked. The Chairman and Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade stated this in an address he presented to commemorate the 2010 International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug trafficking, in Abuja. [continues 71 words]
Over the past three years, United States authorities say, South American drug traffickers have worked to build a base in the West African nation of Liberia, where vast quantities of cocaine could be sent by boat or plane and then reshipped to markets in West Africa and Europe. As part of the plan, the traffickers met with two senior Liberian officials, offering them millions of dollars in bribes to ensure safe passage for the shipments. But what the traffickers did not realize was that both of the officials -- one of whom is the son of the country's president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf -- were secretly cooperating with the United States Drug Enforcement Administration to help break the foothold of drug rings in the region, a federal prosecutor in New York said Tuesday. [continues 783 words]
On the tarmac of Osvaldo Vieira, the international airport of the West African coastal country of Guinea-Bissau, sits a once-elegant Gulfstream jet, which in the normal course of events would have no reason to land in a country with no business opportunities and virtually no economy. In recent years, however, Guinea-Bissau has emerged as a nodal point in three-way cocaine-trafficking operations linking producers in South America with users in Europe; the value of the cocaine that transits this small and heartbreakingly impoverished country dwarfs its gross national product. [continues 2926 words]
The alleged double-life of a pretty suburban mother-turned-dope dealer was exposed in a Durban court this week. Charmaine Bell, a 34-year-old single parent from the "leafy" suburb of Waterfall outside Durban, allegedly ran a thriving dagga business from home until she was raided by police three months ago. In papers before the court it is alleged that the unemployed mother peddled various strains of marijuana and magic mushrooms, and that individual jars of marijuana labelled "Orange Blossom", "Hot Chocolate", "Tootie Fruity", "Indica" and "Mango" lined her kitchen counter. [continues 290 words]
The mother whose two children were removed from her following claims that they were neglected and exposed to "ganja" (dagga) as their parents belonged to a nomadic cult, desperately wants them back. The young mother, only identified as *Sandra to protect the children, spoke for the first time on Sunday after all her children were taken away by family members following interim court orders. She first had her son, who is about to turn six, removed from her care some years ago by her mother. This, Sandra said, was in spite of the family advocate recommending that the child should remain with her. [continues 657 words]
More than 1,000 South Africans are "languishing in appalling conditions" behind bars in foreign countries - 65 percent of them for drug-related offences. Of the 1,062 South Africans serving sentences abroad, 177 are in Brazil and 109 in the United Kingdom. Most of those in Brazil are on drug-related offences. In Botswana and Peru there are 66 South Africans in jail and in Pakistan 42. Most of them jailed for drug offences. And those are the known cases where citizens have exercised their right to request consular assistance. [continues 570 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has impounded drugs worth over N100million in Kano within the last 3 weeks, and hounded into custody 17 suspected peddlers. The Commandant of the Anti Drug Agency, Nicolas Walter told Journalists in Kano that the drugs identified as cannabis were seized from suspected drug peddlers in two separate operations, pointing out that it weighed over 4tonnes. Nicolas Walter who described the seizure as 'unprecedented' in the state came on the heel of growing statistics that shot the state ahead of others in terms of operations, convictions and rehabilitations of peddlers. [continues 179 words]
The Complaint Against 3 Men -- the First of Its Kind -- Portrays Northwest Africa As a New Danger Zone. Three men alleged to be Al Qaeda associates were charged Friday with conspiring to smuggle cocaine through Africa -- the first U.S. prosecution linking the terrorist group directly to drug trafficking. The three suspects, who were charged in federal court in New York, are believed to be from Mali and were arrested in Ghana during a Drug Enforcement Administration sting. Although U.S. authorities have alleged that Al Qaeda and the Taliban profit from Afghanistan's heroin trade, the case is the first in which suspects linked to Al Qaeda have been charged under severe narco-terrorism laws, federal officials said. [continues 951 words]
It took kicks, blows and a cocked AK-47 to raise a doped-up Abdallah Hassan Abdalla from a stupor and, incidentally, save his life. The scene was Mombasa's Mackinon Market. The lead actor in the story of his life was himself; the supporting cast was composed of an angry mob and regular policemen. What followed next was a beating that opened his eyes to the dangers of heroin use. He could finally break free from a 12-year addiction that revolved around three things: heroin, syringes and himself. He had tried to escape with some money he had snatched from a woman. [continues 465 words]
On the Route From South America to Europe, Unstable Guinea-Bissau Is the Ideal Stop for a Drug Smuggler. The unstable nation, along with other West African countries, makes an ideal stop for cartels smuggling drugs from South America to Europe. As a senior police official, Edmundo Mendes' job is to arrest the South American cocaine traffickers who use his troubled West African country, with its starry array of remote islands, as a transit point for drug shipments bound for Europe. It hasn't been easy. [continues 1888 words]
Port Harcourt -- No fewer than 86 drug barons and traffickers of cocaine, heroin and Indian hemp in Rivers State have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms while many other suspects of drug-related offences are currently standing trial at the Federal High Court in the state. On the whole, 266 suspects were arrested for drug trafficking between June 2008 and 2009, following which 2, 766 kgs. of hard drugs, out of which 620.9 grams was cocaine, 140.4 heroin and 2,763.4 kilograms was cannabis sativa, (Indian hemp). [continues 133 words]
The unprecedented flourishing of the business of drug trafficking and peddling in Nigeria has been blamed on the undue cooperation and support allegedly given to drug barons by some unscrupulous police officers in the country. According to a Psychiatrist, Dr Olafemwa Popoola, this was one of the factors militating against drug war in the country. Popoola, stated this, during the year 2009 United Nations International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, organised by the Ekiti State Chapter of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) [continues 152 words]
The prevalence of HIV among intravenous drug users (IDUs) in Egypt is relatively low, but needle sharing is rife among this group, putting them at risk of contracting the virus, experts say. "Sharing needles and syringes is very high in Egypt. This is very alarming because although only one per cent of IDUs are HIV-positive, the high percentage of needle sharing may mean that we are sitting on a ticking bomb," Ehab Kharrat, a senior programme advisor for the UNDP HIV/AIDS Regional Programme in the Arab States (HARPAS), said. Different studies of sample groups show that 45-50 per cent of drug users in Egypt share needles, he said. "When the IDUs get the drugs, many of them do not wait to get a clean needle or syringe, so they grab the next available one they find," Midhat el-Arabi, the head of a programme dealing with drug users at the Freedom Drug Rehabilitation Centre, a local NGO, said. "They [addicts] believe that securing the tool [the syringe] first is a bad omen," said 29-year-old Mohamed (he preferred to give his first name only), who stopped injecting himself eight months ago, said. "I used to buy the narcotic first then inject myself with the first syringe I found." "This belief increases the risk of needle sharing and hence the transmission of HIV and other [blood transmittable] diseases," Midhat el-Arabi told Reuters. Mohamed said he knew he contracted HIV five months ago, a few months after he gave up drugs. "I am quite sure I got it from needle sharing. [continues 125 words]
Lagos Action Congress (AC) yesterday called for a probe of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), alleging that its special role is being hampered by lack of internal control and corruption. In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party noted that "when we called for a probe of the Agency in an earlier statement over the shoddy handling of a huge cocaine import from Brazil and activities of a jail evasion cartel in the Agency, its Spokesman, Mitchel Ofoyeju, said we were ignorant and denied any role by NDLEA or its staff in the prison evasion scandal. [continues 243 words]
MASAKA district council leaders have criticised the laws on marijuana smoking, saying they are too weak to stop the habit, writes Dismus Buregyeya. The district officials, led by Buwunga sub-county chairperson Joseph Batte, said most of the marijuana smokers are arrested and released. "Parliament should revise the laws, otherwise our efforts to fight the vice are being frustrated," they said. Batte said: "Marijuana addicts do not reform. They spend a short time in prison and when they come out they terrorise us," he said. [continues 58 words]
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) were reportedly attacked by suspected drug barons in Abbi town, Ukwuani Local Government Area of Delta State during an official assignment. The attack, which occurred in the early hours of Thursday May 21, 2009 as contained in a signed document made available to LEADERSHIP yesterday, left two of the officers dead while three others who sustained varying degree of bullet wounds were hospitalised. Four of the officers that were abducted have also been released. [continues 102 words]
There are fresh indications that the authorities of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency may have shielded the members of a powerful jail-evasion cartel in the agency from punishment, contrary to the recommendations of the Justice Gilbert Obayan (rtd) National Committee for Reform of the NDLEA. Rather than retire the original 71 officials of the agency indicted by the committee, investigations by Saturday Punch showed that only nine had been retired while the NDLEA sacrificed the career of 62 other innocent officers to make up the number, thereby shielding members of the cartel. [continues 768 words]
Indication emerged at the weekend, that President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua's anti-drug crusade may have started yielding dividends, as the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs Control (UNODC) adjudged Nigeria as the best country in drug control and enforcement in West Africa. A statement by the UN Information Centre (UNIC) in Lagos, said the rating was based on the latest assessment report of the organisation. The statement which did not, however, contain statistics of the Nigeria's efforts on drug control, said the report reflected the measures put in place to curtail the menace of hard drug by the Federal Government. [continues 194 words]
There are fears that political power and decisions in Nigeria and the other West African countries risk falling under the control of wealthy drug barons who record annual turnover of $1billion, SUNDAY PUNCH investigations indicate. Nigerian drug barons and other criminal syndicates in the West African countries are said to be presiding over a thriving trade in cocaine and other hard drugs with total worth enough to take over the weak political structures in the sub-continent. The fear of the wealthy drug barons, a United Nations officer on Drugs and Crimes in Africa, Latin America and the Middle-East, Mr. Chris Van Der Burgh, said, was at the centre of the body's new strategy to combat drug trade in the region. [continues 845 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has arrested a 114-year-old man, Chief Sulaimon Adebayo, in Ogun State, in connection with the discovery of 6.5 tonnes of weeds suspected to be marijuana, popularly called Indian Hemp, behind his house. Parading the suspect in Abeokuta on Friday, the State Commandant of the NDLEA, Mrs. Chinyere Obijuru, said the anti-drug agency, acting on a tip off, swooped on the house of the centenarian, who claimed to be the Baale (community leader) of Oja Sango, Odeda Local Government of the state. [continues 267 words]
Tik is losing its grip on Western Cape teenagers, according to the latest medical research, which shows that use of the drug is most prevalent among people in their early 20s. But experts have warned that a new drug is likely to take its place. Figures released this week show that the average age of tik users has been on the increase since 2006. When the drug first started sweeping through Cape Flats communities, the average age of users was 19. [continues 286 words]
The Ogun State Government has called on the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to find 'appropriate' ways of disposing the drugs seized from drug barons and traffickers in the country. The State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who spoke at the burning of 3,015 kilogrammes of cannabis, cocaine and heroine in Abeokuta on Friday, said the burning of exhibits in open air constituted environmental hazard. Represented by the Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Olukoya Adeleke-Adedoyin, the governor expressed worry that the burning of the exhibits had weakened the fight against climatic change. [continues 389 words]
Part Two: How Porous Borders And Poverty Make Fertile Terrain For Drug Traffickers The wooden canoes stacked on the putrid beach of Mbour's main port tell not one story, but two. Once these locally made, satellite-equipped pirogues did a busy trade in shipping out thousands of young men for whom Mbour is the port of choice for the perilous journey to Europe. Now they have begun to export a far more profitable clandestine commodity to Europe's shores: cocaine. [continues 789 words]
A Durban high school has taken a tough stance against drug abuse by becoming the first school in South Africa to have its pupils trained as anti-drug "marshals". New West Secondary School in Newlands West, which has more than 1400 pupils, started with its first batch of anti-drug campaigners this week. Foundation for a Drug Free World, an international non-governmental organisation, is running the programme. The first batch of 28 pupils are among 120 pupils from five Newlands West high schools taking part in the programme, paid for by the foundation and private sponsors, and will earn their "drug-free marshal" stripes next week. [continues 144 words]
The scourge of Indian hemp cultivation in the South-West of Nigeria is a major problem for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, writes ADEMOLA ONI EACH week at the nation's international airports, tens of Nigerians are caught with hard drugs of varying weights. Yet, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has not expressed its desperation to tackle the drug menace at the points of exit. Somehow, the NDLEA appears to be fighting a battle that seems to be taking a lot of resources of the anti-narcotics body. At its third zonal awareness campaign on the prevention of the cultivation of illicit drugs, trafficking and abuse, in Abeokuta last week, the Director-General of the NDLEA, Chief Lanre Ipinmisho, expressed concern on the notoriety which the South-West had gained in the cultivation of cannabis, popularly known as Indian hemp or ganja in local parlance. [continues 809 words]
The South West zone of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recently converged on Abeokuta, Ogun State capital on awareness campaign on the prevention of illicit drug crop cultivation, trafficking and abuse. Jaiyeola Andrews, who was at the event writes Illicit drug trafficking is one of the vices plaguing the society. While the agencies are working hard against the influx of illicit drug in the society, drug barons and couriers device novel strategies daily to beat the traps of the agency. In Nigeria for example, despite all efforts made by NDLEA to stamp out illicit drug trafficking, abuse and cultivations, drug traffickers chose to look the other way, and often pay the price with their lives. [continues 1092 words]
President's Relative Denies Police Charge After Arrest for Possession of a Single Marijuana Joint Tomorrow morning, President Barack Obama will sit down in the White House to receive his daily intelligence briefing from security officials. Thousands of miles away in Kenya, his half-brother will be facing a rather different audience in a Nairobi courtroom. George Obama, 26, was arrested yesterday for possession of marijuana, after allegedly being caught with a single joint of "bhang" near his home in a Nairobi slum. There was no suggestion that Obama was trying to deal in the drug but, according to Joshua Omokulongolo, the area police chief, rules are rules. "He is not a drug peddler," said Omokulongolo, "But it's illegal, it's a banned substance." [continues 507 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has sacked 100 members of staff involved in aiding and abetting drug deals. Director General of NDLEA, Mr Lanre Ipinmisho, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja at the weekend. Ipinmisho said the staff were found aiding drug barons and drug traffickers in their illicit trade. He said the officers were found guilty by the disciplinary committee set up by the agency for various offences. "In any establishment, you always have some bad eggs. So we fished them out and they were asked to face disciplinary action", he said. [continues 179 words]
The growing of the weed is threatening to break down the relative peace among the communities of the returning internally displaced people in northern Uganda. Sam Lawino and Paul Amoru write about the lucrative trade that is fuelling the growing of marijuana People in the Acholi sub-region are cutting their New Year celebrations short, to worry about the news of a rising marijuana business in the region. The news of many people, most of whom are former displaced persons, getting involved in the growing smoking of the deadly weed only serve to add salt in the wound as the population is already worried about the direction the Juba Peace process has taken. [continues 639 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ondo State has urged stakeholders in the state to join the agency in the war against Indian hemp cultivation. Besides, the agency tasked traditional rulers and chiefs to desist from giving their farmlands to India hemp cultivators. The state Head of Operation, Okon Okon Ulo, who spoke with Daily Sun correspondent in Akure, solicited the assistance of stakeholders in fighting Indian hemp cultivation in the state. The NDLEA boss said the command made a seizure of 6.1 tonnes of Indian hemp in different locations in the state in the last three months, [continues 93 words]
Arrests 87 Suspects Eighty seven suspected persons were arrested while a total of 15.2 tonnes of Indian Hemp were arrested between January to December last year, according to the official statistics released from the Delta state command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Among the seizure were sixteen bags of weeds suspected to be Indian Hemp concealed in an ambulance belonging to Akwa-Ibom state government which was caught along Benin/Asaba highway sometime in July last year. [continues 106 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) through its Chairman, Ahmadu Giade reassured Nigerians that the anti-narcotic campaign will be vigorously pursued this New Year so as to enlist the support of all stakeholders. The NDLEA boss in a signed statement made available to Leadership promised Nigerians a peaceful and progressive year. He noted that the country will continue to maintain a frontline role in the quest for a drug free society for all to actualise their dreams and aspirations. [continues 386 words]
Political Parties Accused Of Collusion With Traffickers Hopes of future oil prosperity have given a lift to Ghana's presidential election race, but drug trafficking threatens to spoil the West African country's image with the stain of corruption. During the heated election contest, the results of which may be announced this weekend, lurid headlines in the partisan press accused both main rival parties of collusion in trafficking or of using drug dollars to win votes. Hard evidence was lacking, but the allegations are indicative of Ghana's failure to tackle an illicit trade experts fear is turning West Africa into a "Coke Coast" and of corruption that threatens to cloud a bright future. [continues 407 words]
Inside Africa
