NDLEA parades 11 peddlers/users of hard drugs in Port Harcourt

Eleven persons, including seven men and four women, were on Friday arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Port Harcourt for being in possession of and peddling various hard drugs with total weight of 347.732 kilograms.

Commander of the rivers state command of the NDLEA, Jude Ekure, who told journalists at a briefing in his office in Port Harcourt, said substances comprising cocaine, heroin and cannabis were retrieved from a joint operation with operatives from the 2 Amphibious, Port Harcourt barracks, on the slum at Abonnema wharf.

According to him, the operation which started at about 3am, caught the peddlers in the slum unawares, a factor which he said made it a success.

The NDLEA boss who said the state needed a lot of work to do in the area of drug abuse and illicit trafficking, going by the volume of hard drugs that were impounded from just a single operation in one area, noting that there is need to pay real attention and not lip service to ending the drug menace in the state.

He said “the operation was carried at about 3am this morning between officials of the NDLEA and operatives of the 2nd brigade of the Nigerian Army at Abonnema wharf. At the end of the day we made 11 arrests, seven males and four females.

“A total of 347.732 kilogrammes of hard drugs, comprising cannabis, heroine and cocaine were recovered from that scene of operation. If from one operation in one small area, we were able to recover this volume of hard drugs, it goes to say that the state has a lot to do in tackling the problem drug abuse and illicit trafficking,” said the anti-drug chief.

He further stated that the agency had not carried out any operation in the area all along because it was taking its time to do a thorough job “by the arrests and seizure this morning you will agree with me that we have some impact”.

The suspects were later paraded with the seized illegal items. Some of the suspects paraded are Elizabeth West, a first year student of Banking and Finance department of Ramat Polytechnic, Maiduguri-Borno state, Nene Johnson, Festus Okumgba, Jude Okpara and Grace Etel among others

Ekure said the suspects were going to be prosecuted accordingly.