336,442kg of drugs seized in 2008 — NDLEA boss
By John Ameh, Abuja
Published: Thursday, 26 Feb 2009
The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, on Wednesday, said that the agency seized 336,442.84 kilogrammes of illicit drugs in 2008 and arrested 7, 899 suspects for various offences.

He added that majority of the 7,899 suspects, were males while 315 were females.

Giade gave the statistics in Abuja during a press briefing on the operations of the agency in 2008.

Cannabis Sativa, otherwise known as Indian hemp, dominated the seizures accounting for 335,535.34kgs, while psychotropic substances were 530.4033kgs and Heroin, 365.4904gs.

Giade said that the seizures and arrests outweighed those of 2007 as the NDLEA seized 211, 476kgs of drugs that year and arrested 6, 308 offenders.

Like in 2008, Indian hemp also dominated the seizures in 2007 accounting for 210, 262.90 of the total seizures.

He said, “The statistics of drug suspects arrested in 2008 shows that there is an increase of 1, 591 representing 20.14 per cent over that of 2007.

“The bulk of cocaine and heroine seizures were made at the international airports in Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port-Harcourt.”

The NDLEA boss regretted that Africa, especially the West-African sub-region, was becoming attractive routes for Latin American drug syndicates for the smuggling of hard substances into Europe and America.

He said, “Recent estimates show that about 42million people abuse illicit drugs in the continent. Africa also accounts for 26 per cent of global cannabis production.

“The situation, therefore, calls for urgent attention from all stakeholders.

“The degree of our determination today will determine how safe the continent will be tomorrow with regards to curbing the growing illicit drug trend and threats.”

According to Giade, in Nigeria, Kano led the five top states with the highest number of arrests in 2008 with 1, 145 suspects but clarified that more drug seizures were made in the Southern part of the country.

He stated that 481 suspects were arrested in Katsina State, Abia, 327, Kaduna, 320 and Rivers, 298.

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