NIGERIA PROMISES REWARDS FOR ARREST OF DRUG BARONS

LAGOS (Reuters) -- Nigeria's anti-narcotic agents promised on Thursday
financial rewards for information leading to the arrest of drug barons in a
bid to clamp down on the drug trade that has made the West African country
a transit route.

Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Bello Lafiaji
told Reuters in Lagos any Nigerian convicted abroad for drug offences would
also face prosecution back home.

``We have started closing-in on merchants of death, anyone who volunteers
useful information on any drug deal, drug courier or dealer...shall be
handsomely rewarded,'' Lafiaji said, without giving figures. Lafiaji spoke
to Reuters shortly after the agency publicly destroyed more than 13,000
pounds of narcotics with a street value of $30 million.

The destruction, he said, was in connection with 682 drug cases
successfully prosecuted and nine abandoned seizures.

The seizures were made at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in
Lagos and at the border between Nigeria and Benin.

Anti-narcotic agents said Nigeria had become a transit state in the global
drug trade which originated mostly in Brazil, Peru, Mexico and some Asian
countries. Most of these drugs found their way to the United States, the
officials said.

Analysts have linked the drug issue to one of the reasons for a 1993 ban by
the United States on direct flights from Nigeria. The ban was lifted last
December after U.S. officials cited improved security at Lagos airport.