COMBATING DRUG TRAFFICKING AND ABUSE

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which was
established to combat drug trafficking and abuse, has through the
years, put in relentless efforts at ensuring that the Nigerian ports
and other various points through which illicit drugs are smuggled in
and out of the country are secure.

Their efforts have paid off and received wide acceptance and
acknowledgement by the international community, thereby creating
avenues for partnership with similar agencies abroad, the most
recent and fruitful being the partnership between the National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the United States government
through its ambassador to Nigeria, Mrs Robin Sanders.

The American envoy, on behalf of her government, donated full body
scanning machines to be stationed in the international airports in
Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt, and made the provision of
networks security training and orientation for the officers at the
various airport commands. The equipment and skills acquired by
officers of the agency through the training and orientation, played
major roles in the outstanding drug seizures and arrests of drug
traffickers and the cracking down on drug cartel and networks.

Worth mentioning is that within seven days after a body scanning
machine was commissioned at the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport
(NAIA) command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA),
five suspected drug traffickers were detected by the machine for
attempting to smuggle narcotics through the airport. The five
suspects were nabbed during the outward screening of passengers on a
KLM flight on April 3, 2008.

The Abuja airport commander of the agency, Alhaji Hamza Umar, while
commenting on the command's scorecard in the first quarter of the
year, disclosed that more drug traffickers would be arrested with
the aid of the body scanning machine. "The first screening we
carried out with the body scanner resulted in the arrest of
five suspected drug traffickers on a single flight," Alhaji Hamza
said. This is a clear signal that whoever carries drugs to this
airport is only presenting him or herself for arrest and prosecution.

Lamentable is the involvement of healthy young men and women in this
ignoble trade. The suspects arrested at the Nnamdi Azikiwe
International Airport (NAIA), as observed by the airport commander,
are between the ages of 29 and 46, which happens to be the prime age
for productivity. In his words: "The ugly trend where young people
engage in drug trafficking rather than be gainfully employed calls
for serious concern."

In line with this call, the United States government, also believing
that drug trafficking and abuse is a global menace which requires a
global approach, has resolved to spread its tentacles in the fight
by partnering with other nations like Nigeria, a partnership which
has been quite fruitful, going by the number of arrests so far and
the number of drug seizures, made possible by the equipment and
human resource development provided by the US.

However, the gloomy portrait painted by drug trafficking and other
related offences to the international community tends to sabotage
the good fight of the agency. Recently, the
honourable chairman/chief executive of the National Drug
Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Alhjai Ahmadu Giade,
while responding to the arrest of six suspected Nigerian
drug traffickers living in other countries in the month of April,
2008 in Lagos, urged Nigerians to always protect and promote the
image of the country by avoiding drug trafficking and other criminal acts.

According to Giade, "Every Nigerian must assume the status of an
ambassador and be genuinely excited in projecting the country in
good light at all times". The arrested suspects include: Izeagba
Donatus Okwuchukwu, 43, who was arrested during the routine check on
passengers on a KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam. He ingested 78
wraps of narcotics; Egharevba Colins, 30, who lives in Madrid,
Spain. He ingested 68 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.138 kilogrammes;
Andrew Okey Eze, 36, who lives in Torino, Italy and was found to
have ingested 95 wraps of cocaine on his way to Milan.

Others are Maduka Sunday Chinedu, 35, who lives in Cotonou. He was
found to have ingested 84 wraps of cocaine on his way to Germany;
Ngwu Whiteman Gibson, a 48-year old father of three who lives in
Bassano, Italy. He ingested 93 wraps of cocaine, weighing 1.568
kilogrammes, and Alugwo Kingsley Uka, 33, who was arrested on his
way to Belgium with 73 wraps of hard drugs in his stomach.

The agency took the war against drug trafficking further when it
enjoined courier houses to prevent the use of their organisations in
illicit drug trafficking, by collaborating with the agency in the
control of illegal trafficking. The call for the collaboration came
towards the end of April, during a workshop on operator –
government agency interface in the courier business in Lagos. The
agency, through its director-general/secretary, Otunba Lanre
Ipinmisho, stated that, "Courier companies are expected by law to
take reasonable precaution in the courses of their operations to
check obnoxious drug trade."

Furthermore, Ipinmisho cited section 16 of the NDLEA Act, which
stipulates that it shall be the duty of every commercial carrier to
take reasonable precaution to ensure that its means of transport is
not used in committing drug offences under the act.
Such precaution, as referred to by the act, includes the training
of personnel to identify suspicious consignments and persons,
promotion of integrity of their personnel, submission of cargo
manifest in advance to the agency, use of
tamper-resistant, individually veritable seals or
parcels/containers, and reporting to the agency all suspicious
circumstances at the earliest opportunity.

In addition, the courier houses are expected to comply with
appropriate security measures to prevent unauthorised cargo in its
means of transportation. The need to establish a cordial
relationship between courier houses and the agency in the control of
drug trafficking was also emphasised by
the director-general/secretary of the agency.

According to him, "The need has become imperative, due to the fact
that drug barons have diversified their subterfuge by the use of
courier houses," a reason why the NDLEA in 1996 under its
Directorate of Investigation, created a specialised unit called
the Postal Intelligence Assignment, which is now known as Special
Intelligence Assignment (SIA), to check drug trafficking at the
courier houses.

The SIA, since its establishment, has made several seizures of drugs
and arrests of suspected drug traffickers. Just in January 28, 2008,
the unit intercepted 2 kilogrammes of cannabis originating
from Abia State and meant for delivery in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Similarly, 500 grammes of cocaine concealed in cell phone chargers
were also discovered in 2007.

Notably, the agency's watchfulness from 2007 till date has led to
the seizure of a total of 3.684 kilogrammes of cocaine, 25.8
kilogrammes of cannabis and 20 kilogrammes of psychotropic
substances that were smuggled through the courier houses. Some modes
of concealment uncovered in the process include hard cover books,
picture frames, photo albums, sculptures, computer components,
electronics spare parts, textile materials, etc.

The agency has shown great courage and determination in its fight
against drug trafficking and abuse between 2006 and the present,
during which period, over 12,663 suspected drug dealers were
arrested and the seizure of over 418.8 metric tonnes of various hard
drug made. The agency still has to fasten its belt though and
take this campaign against narcotics to the
grassroots, incorporating enlightenment progammes into their
scheme to cover schools, both at primary, secondary and higher institutions.

It is also important that the fight against drug trafficking be
taken to major hotels, resorts, and various barracks as perpetrators
of such vice do their illegal transactions in the above mentioned places.

Finally, the government should enact stiffer penalties for
offenders, so as to discourage them and intending offenders from the
disgraceful trade.