NDLEA arrest 7 suspected drug dealers, recovers 1.4 billion naira worth of Cannabis in Edo

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)  Edo State  Command yesterday  arrested seven persons suspected to be cannabis dealers in Ukpuje forest in Owan West Local Government Area of the State.
The names of the suspects were given as   Emmanuel Oki, 62 years,(chairman of vigilante in Ukpuje); Chief Odi Sabato, 42 years and Bright Inemi Edegbe, 53 years. Others are Gowon Ehimigbai, 53 years;Enodi Ode, 37 years, Ayo Oni, 30 years and Akhime Benjamin, 43 years
The illicit drug village comprising  four large cannabis warehouses and had a total of 233,778kg ( two hundred and thirty three thousand, seven hundred and seventy-eight kilograms,)  of the dried weeds with an estimated street value of over 1.4 billion naira. 
According to the State Commander, Buba Wakawa, this is the largest single concentration of cannabis discovered by the command. He gave the breakdown of the drugs as follows; 318 bags of 80kg each weighing 25,440kg, 15,853 bags of 13kg weighing 206,089kg. However, while the total quantity seized is 2,249kg others weighing 231,529kg was destroyed at the farm.  
Wakawa ascribed the success of the operation to the enabling environment created by the new Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Brigadier General Buba Marwa. “We took delivery of two new Hilux operational vehicles presented to the command last week.

This is the first assignment of the vehicles and it turned out to be the best for the command. We are grateful to the chairman, and this is a clear warning that there is no room for drug barons in the State”.
He added that the seizures represent a large chunk of the previous cannabis planting season.  In his words, “they planted, watered, harvested and processed the drug only for us to dispossessed them of their labour because their action is criminal. The warehouses are located in the heart of the forest, yet we were able to uncover them based on intelligence gathering.”
“The cannabis warehouses were located at Ukpuje forest in Owan West Local Government Area of the State. The  community that is notorious for cannabis cultivation and trafficking as well as attacks on law enforcement officers, stood still as a combined team of NDLEA and combatant military personnel overran the drug trafficking syndicates due to our superior fire power.” The commander stated. 
Wakawa thanked the Four Brigade Commander in Benin City, Brigadier General, M. A. Sadik for the logistics and personnel assistance that led to the successful clampdown on the cannabis syndicates in the area. He described the synergy between the Nigerian Army and NDLEA in the State as an unbeatable force against drugs and related crime in the state.