Pubdate: Mon, 14 Apr 2003
Source: Vanguard (Nigeria)
Copyright: 2003 Vanguard.
Contact:  http://www.vanguardngr.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2890
Author: Anayo Okoli

NDLEA IMPOINTS OVER 268 KILOS OF NARCOTICS IN ONITSHA ONE

THE Onitsha zonal command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA) has arrested 65 drug suspects between January and March this year
and seized a total of 268.435 kilogrammes illegal drugs. The command also
announced that it was making effort to raid drug joints in Onitsha zone to
ensure that illicit drugs were not freely used this coming elections to
cause violence.

The zonal commander of the agency Mr Adeyemi Adeofe who disclosed this at a
press conference noted that out of the suspects, 59 were male while six of
this were women. According to him 139.211 kilogrammes of the seized drugs,
were recorded by the Fegge area command. Adeofe said that 20 of the suspects
have been convicted while others were under various stages of prosecution.

Fifty-one drug addicts, the commander further disclosed have been counselled
and re-united with their family members.

"NDLEA in Onitsha zone has arrested no fewer than 65 drug suspects from the
various area commands of the zone with men topping the list with 54 while
the women were six. One Udeme Dennis from Akwa Ibom state, age 26, male, a
labourer in okada village in Edo state was arrested with 12.3kg of Cannabis
which topped the list of the drugs arrested within the period while 23
grammes of cocaine was seized. It is also worthy to note that most of the
arrested suspects were coming from Edo, Ondo and Delta states which is a
major source for Cannabis in the East.

"A total weight of 139.211 kilogramme out of the grand total of 268.435
kilogrammes was recorded by our Fegge area command. I am happy to inform you
that 20 of these suspects have been convicts while others are under various
stages of prosecution, and 51 drug addicts have been counselled and
re-united with their family members. "I am not unware of the violence that
characterize elections and bearing in mind that most violence and thuggery
during elections are associated with the use and abuse of drugs concerted
efforts have been made and are being made to dislodge all the drug joints in
Onitsha zone with a view to having a violence free election", Adeofe said.
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