Ralph Adekunle
20 November 2008
Ado-Ekiti — The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ekiti State has arrested 13 suspected drug dea-lers and destroyed 22 acres of Indian hemp plantation in the area.
Addressing the press, the Commander of the agency, Prin-ce Ben Ikani, disclosed that his men were able to locate the in-dian hemp farms at Aramoko area of Ekiti South West Local Govern-ment and Odo-Owa in Ijero Local Government Area.
Ikani noted that the farmers have now devised another me-thod by planting the illicit drug on the mountain top so that no-body would be able to notice them. He revealed that a total of 663kg of Indian hemp was inter-cepted by the agency in the first half of November.
According to Ikani, it took him and his men in conjunction with men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) three hours to get to the planta-tion at Odo-Owa where 14 acres of Indian hemp farm belonging to one Gbenga (a.k.a Double) was destroyed by the NDLEA, adding that four suspects had been arrested in connection with the farm.
He also said the agency was able to discover another seven acres of hemp plantation at Aramoko Ekiti forest and also set it ablaze. He said a cocaine traf-ficker was arrested in the state en-route Abuja, adding that the driver of a commercial bus owned by a private transport firm was arrested when a parcel con-taining 20g of cocaine was found in the bus.
He said the driver, Cyprian Otti, was paid N800 in Lagos to deliver a parcel that contained a Holy Bible by the sender to one Andy Asogwa in Abuja. Both the name, address and telephone number of the owner were written on the back of the envelope. But to the driver's surprise, the sup-posed Holy Bible was an old book of bible size, the centre stocked with 20g of cocaine wrapped with a newspaper before sealing the envelope.
Ikani warned all landowners to be careful about who they release their land for farming, adding that they would also be liable if drugs are found on such farms.
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