NDLEA arrests 175 in Benue

From: Rose Ejembi, Makurdi

The Benue State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has arrested 175 suspects and seized four tons 145.2545kg of cannabis sativa between January and December this year.
State Commander of NDLEA, Mrs. Florence Ezeonye, who disclosed this while briefing newsmen in her officer, on Friday, noted that of the 175 suspects that were arrested, 71 had already been convicted while others were currently being prosecuted in court.
She disclosed further that 98.3kg of psychotropic substances including Tramadol, Diazaphem, cough syrup with codeine among others were also seized while over two hectares of cannabis farms were discovered and destroyed in the year under review.
Ezeonye who also revealed that the Command made a seizure of 2.3grams of Cocaine in the state expressed worry that the development was fast becoming a trend in the state as the command had sometimes in 2015 made a seizure of 0.3grams of cocaine.
She lamented that this seizure was becoming worrisome because combination of cannabis sativa and cocaine goes to show that it was becoming a serious issues and calls for concerted efforts of all stakeholders to tackle headlong to enable the state return to the food basket of the nation she which was known for rather than the drug basket of the nation.
The NDLEA boss also regretted the frequent attacks of her officers in the line of duty especially in places like Ushongo in Ushongo Local Government Area, Chitto in Ukum LGA, Otukpo Icho in Otukpo LGA and Mbamena in Konshisha LGA among others.
While thanking the state government for supporting NDLEA in the area of logistics by providing two operational vehicles among others assistance to the command, Ezeonye appealed to traditional rulers to admonish their subjects to help security agents in cleaning up their domains of criminals stressing that the menace can only be fought successfully with the cooperation of everyone.