WE ARE WINNING THE DRUG WAR - BELLO LAFIAJI

The West African Joint Operation (WAJO) comprising 13 West African
countries and drug attachees of Europe and America met recently in Banjul,
Gambia to deliberate on illicit drug trafficking and other psychotropic
substances in the region. Principal facilitator of the joint operation,
Alhaji Bello Lafiaji who is also the chairman of the National Drug Law
Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) presided over the meeting. He spoke to Crime
Correspondent, Albert Akpor on activities of WAJO and other issues. Excerpts.

What is WAJO and how has its activities helped in the war against illicit
drug trafficking?

WAJO - stands for West African Joint Operation against drug trafficking and
we decided to hold this meeting in Gambia because we have mapped out our
strategies and it is going to be effective for all the 13 African countries
that are participating.. WAJO is a collective regional grouping with the
responsibility to work together in harmonisation of all the 13 West African
countries in order to fight the menance of drugs in the West African
sub-region.

And it has proved to be successful in all the operations that were
conducted simultaneously in all the West African countries.

What has so far been the major problem of WAJO and by extention NDLEA in
this war against drug?

Problems abound in every organisation, but what is more important is to
improve on the logistics. Logistics in the sense that we lack communication
but we are trying to improve on that with the assistance of UNDE and we
will not relent in our endeavour.

Is this 'war' worth the effort put into it? Are you winning it?

The NDLEA like any other law enforcement agency has its own success and
that is to say, fighting the drug war is not done by one agency or one
country. Drug war is a collective responsibility, therefore, I will like to
say the NDLEA has a fine responsibility and also has to co-operate with all
the other law enforcement agencies. Also, the judiciary has been very
helpful. The only problem is that these criminals are coming on and on
again. You can jail somebody for 10 years, he comes out and continue the
same trick. So it is a global problem not perculiar to Nigeria. I believe
with concerted efforts, we will be able to improve in our endeavour.

What is Operation Zebra and the how would you describe Operation Tiger?

At the third WAJO meeting in Accra, members agreed to conduct a joint
operation code named "Operation Zebra." The secretariat developed
operational guidelines to assist member countries and also designed forms
which were used to report seizures and arrest. The operation was conducted
simultaneously in seven countries in September 2002. These countries are
Burkina Faso, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, the Gambia and Togo. Apart
from the very excellent results of interdiction from this operation,
certain vital trends were noticeable. It is my sincere opinion that these
trends do have far reaching implications in international drug control in
the West African sub-region.

Trafficking in cocaine, heroin and cannabis was noticed in most of the
participating countries. Traffickers use a number of airlines from
different parts of the world to smuggle drugs. About nine airlines were
identified. And as a linkage to the problem of narcotics trafficking
illegal smuggling of cash was also going on in the region and this poses
serious threat to the region. We have also noticed through Operation Zebra,
that many countries in the region are handicapped in terms of logistics and
trained manpower; and this we intend to tackle.

What about Operation Tiger?

No, let us not discuss that because if we do, we might be revealing our
strategies. However, we are coming all out for these traffickers, I mean
both the peddlers and the barons. No one will be spared in this war this
time around.

What is the relationship between the NDLEA and other agencies?

Immediately I assumed office as the chairman of NDLEA, what I did was to
establish a good relationship with all other security agencies. Like I told
you, by my background, I was a Police Officer and was into detective work.
And now that the Federal Government has appointed me the chairman of the
Agency, I found it very easy to work with them because we have mutual
respect and we cooperate with each other. At the national level, we have
what we call the Joint Security Board with all the departments being
members of the security board. I have enjoyed an excellent relationship
with them.

What about the airlines indicted in this deal?

What we have done is to collaborate with the airlines. You can only
interdict or pump into an airline if the drugs is found within the cargo of
the air craft and when it is found, we fish out the passenger. So we are
organising seminars and workshop and inviting them to assist in the conduct
of our operation.

How successful has this been?

The war can be won by our resolve to win it. But what I want to let you
know is that there is no place in the world where there is no crime, it is
either it is high or less. But in Nigeria, we are winning the war and that
is the main reason why we established WAJO. If Nigeria is winning the war
and your neighbours are not, it would be counter-productive and that is the
reason why we have to come together as a team to be able to fight it together.