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Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
The Benue State Command of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Monday paraded three suspects who were intercepted with a truck loaded with 300 bags of Cannabis Sativa popularly known as Indian Hemp along Aliade-Otukpo road.
According to the State Commander of the Agency, Mrs Florence Ezeonye, the seized consignment was estimated to weigh four tons of the banned substance carefully concealed in the truck along with over 200 bags of white cement.
Ezeonye, who paraded the suspects and the banned substances before newsmen at command headquarters in Makurdi, disclosed that the truck was on its way to Kano when eagle-eyed officers of the NDLEA on stop and search duty intercepted it.
She explained that the suspects and the truck loaded with Indian Hemp were coming from Uzeba in Edo when it was intercepted.
The NDLEA boss, noting that the arrest was unprecedented, maintained that the suspects would be made to face the wrath of the law after the investigation has been completed.
The NDLEA Commander, remarking on the ingenuity adopted by criminals to beat security at checkpoints at this period of COVID-19 lockdown, stressed that if the suspects had succeeded in transporting the banned substances, the owner would have been smiling to the bank with almost N24 million at the expense of Nigerians.
On his part, the driver revealed that he along with the two other suspects took advantage of the rains as well as a convoy of trucks carrying essential items in order to beat security checkpoints at interstate borders before they arrived at Benue.
While the truck driver owned up to his crime and regretted his action after he was arrested, the two other suspects denied knowledge of what the truck had been conveying.
