Nigeria Content Online

The
National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday paraded six
suspects, including a pregnant woman who were apprehended in three
different raids carried out in Ogbese, Akure North Local Government
Area of Ondo State.

The suspects were
arrested for allegedly serving as custodians of Indian hemp in
warehouses in Ogbese. Walter Nicholas, the new Commander of the agency
in Ondo State, while briefing reporters about the activities of the
command, said the officers of the command also seized six tonnes of
Indian hemp from the suspects.

Mr. Nicholas stated
that the suspects were merely remotely connected with the drugs because
the real barons behind them had disappeared. He regretted that Ondo
State was leading in the cultivation of Indian hemp, as 60 per cent of
the drug currently being produced in the country, were from Ogbese and
other villages around Owo.

He explained that the suspects were arrested because they were sighted near the warehouses where the drugs were kept.

He also said
operatives of the agency had dismantled a local factory where the
barons compressed bags of Indian hemp into small packages for export to
Spain en route Kano and Libya, adding that most of the Indian hemp
usually being seized by the agency in Kano, was usually procured from
Ondo State.

“The development
has portrayed Ondo State in a bad light,” he said. “It is something
that is highly shameful. To curb the dangerous trend, traditional
rulers and security agencies in the state have been enlisted in the
fight to bring the barons to book.

“Ondo State is endowed with abundant virgin and fertile land that
should be used to cultivate plants that could be exported or processed
for local consumption. Farmers should embrace the cultivation of such
plants instead of cultivating Indian hemp.”