Pubdate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004
Source: Vanguard (Nigeria)
Copyright: 2004 Vanguard.
Contact:  http://www.vanguardngr.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2890
Author: Albert Akpor

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.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager