National Drug Law Enforcment Agency (NDLEA) last weekend seized a container load of substances suspected to be cocaine, Francis Ugwoke writes on how the offensive drug arrived Nigeria It was in the 1980s that the Nigeria first intercepted one of the biggest consignments of hard drugs made up of cocaine and heroine.

The market value then was said to be several millions of naira.

The offensive cargo was concealed in plastic coolers to ensure that they were not discovered. No one would have suspected anything, but for the tip-off which the Customs Service got. There was yet another seizure at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in '90s in which the Akubezes were named as the importers. It would be recalled that in 1985, under the military government of Major General Mohammadu Buhari, trafficking in hard drugs attracted death penalty on conviction. The idea was to check the importation of hard drugs into the country. Among the victims of the controversial law were late Bernard Ogedengbe and Batholomew Owoh who were executed at the Bar Beach, Lagos. The execution was aimed at discouraging hard drug trade in Nigeria. Since then, Nigeria has joined other nations in the war against hard drugs.

[continues 1470 words]

Cannabis farmers are winning the war against government officials, a drug law enforcement chief has said.

Daily Trust travelled to Edo state, considered even by federal officers to be the home of the "finest cannabis in the world", to investigate the soaring profits being made by drug farmers, and the poor quality of the resources the federal government has given its agencies to fight them.

Drug smugglers are suspected of using government vehicles to transport their wares to market, while the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has only one car to fight them, our investigation reveals.

A former drug baroness spoke to our reporter and told how the smugglers do it, and the vast quantities of money they can make from growing cannabis on remote farms, for sale in Nigeria or in Europe.

[end]

TUNDE walked up to his mother's shop, looking rough and having the collar of his shirt flying.

He had a look of someone already in the clouds - that look of someone intoxicated with alcohol.

For him at 15 years and in Senior Secondary School I, you can't but notice his gait, his unkept clothes and the redden eyes. Speaking with his mother who sells palm oil, his blood short eyes and bad breath were so glaring that one tends to wonder what may be responsible for all of these.

[continues 1564 words]

Reggae faithfuls in Rivers State has celebrated the late Raggae King, Right Honourable Robert Nesta Marley's day in grand style in Port Harcourt, the state capital.

The event which took place on Wednesday and Thursday at studies night club and Emma Chez Hotel respectively witnessed a mammoth crowd of Raggae faithfuls across the country as well as other music lovers.

Speaking at the venue of the event, the president of Raggae world in the state, Ras Chidi Umeh, stressed that the late Bob Marley popularised Reggae music in the world and used his music as an instrument for the war against oppression and other social vices and preached emancipation of Africans in the diaspora.

[continues 181 words]

Abuja

In one of his earliest public speeches on assumption of office as the democratically elected President in 1999, President Olusegun Obasanjo promised that his administration will battle the menace of drug abuse and trafficking because of the adverse consequences to the socio economic environment of the country. The president traced communal and religious violence to the high rate of drug abuse among some Nigerians.

The President promised to strengthen the National drugs law enforcement agency (NDLEA) in order to actualize the aspiration of checking the menace of drug trafficking. The leadership of the apex drug agency believes that the current government has implemented measures to enhance the effectiveness of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency[NDLEA], but analysts believe that the high incidents of inter-ethnic and inter-religious unrests show clearly that drug reduction programmes have not been sufficiently implemented by the Anti-Drug body.

[continues 1031 words]

Lagos - Once again, the International Narcotics Control Report just released by the United States Bureau for International Narcotics Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) has listed Nigeria among the countries that give vent to global drug trade. For this persistent embarrassment to cease, pragmatic, result-oriented steps should be taken by Nigeria to check the activities of drug traffickers.

Given the rather precipitate sack of the immediate past chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Bello Lafiaji, in December last year, the current shameful rating of the nation is hardly surprising. Under the administration of Lafiaji, the agency achieved fanfare and showmanship instead of the reduction, if not elimination, of transactions in hard drugs. Ironically, while NDLEA's self congratulation was on, the 2005 report of INL pencilled down Nigeria, South Africa and Liberia as the African countries to be accorded primary focus. Nigeria specifically got the knock as a place "in which illicit narcotics and money laundered from South America enter into Europe, Africa and Asia."

[continues 477 words]

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, (SGF) Alhaji Aminu Saleh has decried the steady decline in the standard of education in the North, particularly in Katagum Emirate of Bauchi State, and called on governments and other stakeholders for urgent and total overhauling of the sector for the overall development of the region.

Saleh who made the call in a paper titled: "Problems and Prospects of Education in Katagum Emirate", which he delivered at the Annual Lecture organized by Katagum Students Association of the College of Education, Azare also challenged elites and well meaning individuals from the area to contribute positively to the development of education in the Emirate because according to the socio-economic and political growth of any society.

[continues 334 words]

The jinx surrounding the sleepy but notorious Abbi Town in Ndokwa West Council Area, where cannabis (Indian hemp) farmlands abound has been broken by Delta State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The Tide sources revealed that the agency, with a combined team of the Nigerian Army and Police invaded the town, arresting 26 suspected drug peddlers and seizing over 5,166 kg of Carnabis Sativa at Abbi.

The combined team, which comprised of 32 officers and men of the Nigerian Army, 16 mobile policemen and 43 NDLEA officers on Monday carried out the operation - burning down two warehouses loaded with over ten tons of the drug substance.

[continues 194 words]

Narcotic agents in Oyo State have descended on about 1000 hectares of Indian hemp farm at Bode Ode village in Itesiwaju Local Government Area of Oyo State.

The Oyo State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Dr Oyelayo Oyebode, said: "We discovered the forest of Indian hemp in July and we were able to arrest the suspects who claimed to be workers at the farm."

According to Oyebode, another Indian hemp farm was found at old National Park, Ikoyi-Ile, in the Orire Local Governmnet Area, where three suspects were nabbed.

[continues 79 words]

Life Is A Wonderful Gift. It Appears Flexible, Yet Rigid.

Life Is All About Making Choices.

Apart from the choice of one's parents where life seems rigid, God has indeed ordanied man a free willed agent and offers him a whole lot of options.

The choice of having a formal education; the choice of friends to be identified with; the choice of food to eat and habit to cultivate etc. are several of the choices every man must make for himself.

[continues 1533 words]

The Lagos State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday disclosed that it had made a seizure of 9482.92kg of various types of illicit drugs from sixty-two dealers in the first half of the year .

The seizure which it noted as the highest since the establishment o f the command, doubled those made in years 2003 and 2004 put together.

The command boss, Mr Abiodun Adesola who made the disclosure at a press conference to flag off programmes for Drug free day in Lagos State, described the feat as a tremendous assault on the psyche of drug dealers.

[continues 165 words]

Thirty-eight people were convicted for drug-related offences between June 2004 and May 2005 in Jigawa by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

The State Commander of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Alhaji Mukhtar Garba told Vanguard that the convicted drug peddlers were among the One hundred and thirty arrested within the period through series of raids.

Alhaji Mukhtar Garba stated that the Agency recovered various illicit drugs weighing 1,172.33 kilograms, adding that under the NDLEA Drugs Demand Reduction Activities counseled 211 drug users in the state.

[continues 248 words]

The British High Comm-issioner to Nigeria, Mr Richard Gozney, has described the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a major positive force in the international counter-narcotics efforts.

Gozney, who paid a working visit to the Agency's headquarters, said he was touched by the full range of leadership under Alhaji Bello Lafiaji, whose contribution has taken international collaboration to a level hitherto unimaginable.

Presenting the equipment, which included 10 computer units and accessories, Gozney said "unless all countries build up the habit of cooperation and sharing sensitive information, no country could succeed on its own in taming trans-national crime," he said.

[continues 172 words]

CHAIRMAN, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Alhaji Bello Yusuf Lafiagi, has pledged the determination of the agency to stamp out drug trafficking in the country.

Alhaji Lafiagi, who received some post-humorous awards on behalf of his slain staff in Kano and elsewhere in the country recently, told Sunday Champion in an interview last week that Nigeria has emerged as one of the most serious countries currently waging war against drug trafficking across the globe.

He maintained that, despite the hazardous and tedious nature of the fight, the agency and its staff had resolved to give traffickers a run for their illicit activities.

[continues 213 words]

The Annual Report of the International Narcotics Board, (INCB), a comprehensive survey of the drug-control situation in the world released yesterday, has called on African governments to address drug related problems while it also requests the international community to provide support for states in the region in order to combat drug trafficking and abuse.

Presenting the report in Abuja, the representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Mr. Paul Salav noted the increasing use of drugs in Nigeria and said a baseline survey of Lagos, Kano and Port-Harcourt, indicated that if governments do not act fast the practices could indeed worsen the spread of HIV/AIDS on the continent.

[continues 266 words]

Lagos

No fewer than eight suspected drug dealers, including a female secondary school teacher, were paraded yesterday by the Lagos State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mr Abiodun Adesola.

Addressing reporters, Adesola said some of the suspected were arrested from various Indian Hemp smoking joints in the state, while others were arrested while attempting to smuggle the substance into the state with most of them through information received from members of the public.

"All the suspects along with their exhibits will soon be charged to court," Adesola said.

[continues 228 words]

LAGOS -- Femi Kuti's New African Shrine is repositioning to meet with the challenges of year 2005. Towards this end, the management has banned the consumption of Indian hemp in and around the arena. The ban, which came into effect, recently saw Femi practically chasing deviants away from Afrobeat's new home. Regulars who came to buy the 'hard stuff' were forced to beat a quick retreat.

Before now the law only forbids the sale inside the shrine. So while it was sold outside, it was freely smoked in and around the shrine vicinity. But with the new law smokers have to look out for another place to do their thing.

[continues 343 words]

STANDARD Trust Bank PLC has joined in the crusade to rid the nation off hard drug consumption and trafficking, as it has invested an unspecified percentage of its profit in 2004, on public enlightenment campaigns against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.

The bank's involvement according to its Managing Director Chief Executive Officer, Mr Tony Elumelu who dropped the hint at the flag off ceremony of the Drama series and Jingles on illicit drug trafficking and abusesaid their action was necessitated following the increasing involvement of youths who would in future handle the affairs of the nation and being looked up to as leaders of tomorrow , get involve, in this illicit drug business.

[continues 438 words]

Calabar

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) arrested 275 drug offenders with 668.077 kilogrammes of narcotic substances between January 2003, and December 2004, in Cross River State.

The State Commander of the agency, Mr. Tony-Ray Ene, Who made this known in Calabar recently, said cannabis-related arrests and seizures topped the list with 260 suspects, who trafficked in 667.840 kilogrammes of hard drugs representing 94.54 percent.

Five suspects trafficked in 0.050 kilogrammes of cocaine and 0.036kg of heroine, representing 1.81 percent while four persons were caught with unclassified substances with 0.065kg or 1.45 percent and morphine for which one person was arrested involved 0.080kg or 0.36 percent.

[continues 444 words]

Nigeria Brothel Is Test Site For New Pill

IBADAN, Nigeria -- Crude paintings of women and rows of dimly lit bedrooms make clear the purpose of a shabby building just off a main road in this sprawling city. But for the next year, this brothel will have another function as well: testing a drug that could help stop HIV infections before they begin.

About 125 prostitutes here are pioneers in a U.S.-funded study that will ultimately involve 5,000 volunteers in seven nations. The study seeks to determine whether a single daily dose of an AIDS drug called Tenofovir can prevent infection from taking hold in healthy people, the way birth control pills prevent conception.

[continues 1126 words]