National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Trends as Stakeholders Proffer Stiffer Penalties For Drug Abuse, Trafficking

Stakeholders Lament over Poor Stipulated Punishment for Illicit Drug Abuse, Trafficking in Nigeria.

Drug trafficking has become the bane of Nigerian society, with millions addicted and other crimes that come with it. Going forward, stakeholders proposed stiffer penalties as one of the measures put in place to fight these maladies.

Ejes Gist News Data Miners learnt that the stakeholders made the revelation at various fora at which a national drug use survey supplied details that 10.6 million Nigerians aged between 15 and 64 abuse cannabis as opposed to the total number of 14.3 million drug abusers.

Many dealers are now being apprehended by the security agencies and tried before the courts within the nation. For instance, Freeman Charles Ogbonna was sentenced by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos to 25 years imprisonment on a count charge bordering on drug trafficking. He was convicted three months after vomiting and excreting 80 wraps of cocaine following his arrest by National drug law enforcement agency (NDLEA) operatives at the screening point of Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.

The NDLEA had also just arrested four Nigerian pilgrims going to Saudi Arabia for attempting to traffic illicit drugs. In another related incident, South Africa’s Johannesburg Metro Police Department joined the Hawks Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation in nabbing two suspects, a 48-year-old Nigerian and a 43-year-old South African man, for collaborating in crime intended to commit a drug-related act.

NDLEA Chairman, Brig-Gen Buba Marwa (retd), disclosed that within the January 2021 to March 2024 time range, his agency seized 761,000 tonnes of illicit drugs and substances. According to a three-year report on its activities, the Agency said it had arrested 52,901 persons on drug-related cases, including 48 high-profile drug barons.

“The magnitude of our effort is reflected in the statistics of our drug supply reduction activities. In three and a half years, we have arrested 52,901 drug traffickers, including 48 barons. Over 9,000 of the suspects are convicted in court, while we have, in the same period seized 7.6 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit substances,” Marwa said.

It further supported the death penalty for those found guilty of dealing, importing, manufacturing, trafficking, and delivering cocaine, heroine, and other hard drugs within the nation to discourage offenders. Of course, this death sentence came under the National Drug Law Enforcement Act Amendment Bill, 2024, which the Senate debated and has resolved to give approval. It would provide that judges could impose the death penalty on drug manufacturers, suppliers, or sellers when convicted, instead of the present maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Muslim Media Watch Group Founder, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the current law has not been sufficient enough as a deterrent.

Ejes Gist News reports that no fewer than 20 countries across the world have made death penalty the reward for drug trafficking. He said, “If Nigeria toes the same line, it will not be too much. I view this as a very harsh deterrent to the drug peddlers”.

In addition, the United Nations has assured Nigeria of its support in the already ignited war against drug abuse and drug trafficking. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed made this known when she paid a courtesy call on NDLEA CEO Brig Gen Buba Marwa (retd) in Abuja. She stated that the UN was ready to support the NDLEA in the task of curbing substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria.

Peter Obi, a potential candidate in the yet-to-be-held presidential elections, has recently called on the federal government to advance its fight against drug abuse by imposing harsher penalties on drug offenders. “Most traffickers operate in the lapses between borders and jurisdictional influence in order to beat the law,” observed Ngozi Uzo, President of the Anti-Drug Trafficking Network. She posited that enforcement required much closer collaboration with sharing intelligence, joining forces, and combined operation and patrol at the borders.

“Nigeria should sustain preventive programs of the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) involving alternative development to illicit drug crops, satellite monitoring of illegal drug crops, and projects on anti-money laundering. It should also be geared toward sharing intelligence and ensure its law enforcement agencies have the capacities in tracking and dismantling trafficking networks”. “A comprehensive trafficking operation targeting interventions and cooperation is necessary to prevent the diversion of drug precursors and chemicals used in illicit drug production,” Uzo said.

According to Social Analyst Ehi Emmanuel, Nigeria must take on the illicit drug ecosystem in an all-out war to forestall a situation in which drug barons would undermine the country’s government, the same situation that was witnessed in Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela. He proposed that instead of the death penalty, the Senate should come up with other and harsher form of penalties to punish such offenders.

From a transit country of illegal drugs in the recent past, Nigeria is now a full producer, consumer, and distributor with a population of more than 200 million. NAFDAC says tramadol and cough syrups containing codeine are widely abused in Nigeria. It is against this background that the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control banned the production and importation of codeine cough syrup back in 2018.

Though cannabis is locally grown, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other narcotics are trafficked along with opioids through the country to feed a growing addiction problem. Ended local manufacture and ended marijuana use in the United States with transshipment through Mexico being the main provider to this nation. Drug trafficking is still a disturbing trend occurring in other countries as well. According to the UNODC, drug trafficking is the illicit trade in substances banned by law, involving hundreds of billions of dollars that result in risks to human health, economies, and society in general.

“According to the UNODC’s executive director, Ghada Waly, this year’s analysis in the World Drug Report 2024, drug production, trafficking, and use have continued to be factors of instability and inequality and represent a serious threat to human health, safety, and well-being. Wally called for concerted efforts toward evidence-based treatment and support to those afflicted by drug abuse and, calling on governments, declared a ‘go hard’ on the illicit drug market, further investing in prevention.”.

What is more worrying is the fact that the number of drugs users in the world surged to 292 million last year and is up sharply over the last decade. Some 35 million people globally suffer from drug-use disorders, and drug trafficking pulls in billions of dollars for criminal organizations.

In the view of analysts, these figures serve to validate that substance abuse has, in fact, become a global issue and one that has deep-ranging affects on the strata of societies, apart from its being multidimensional in nature, with complex issues that need to be tackled at the most global level.