The animosity between the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Anambra State came to a boiling point earlier in the week when a statement by the anti-drug agency handed a stark warning to the NSCDC “to stop the drug activities at the back of their office, where their officers go to smoke.”
The strong-worded statement signed by the anti-drug agency’s Public Relations Officer had warned its sister organization to desist from encroaching on its territory.
The rancour was triggered by a statement attributed to the state Commandant of the NSCDC, David Bille, in which he claimed that the corps uncovered a large expanse of land cultivated with Indian hemp in the premises of Lake City Secondary School, Nri in Anaocha Local Government Area of the state.
The widely-circulated statement disclosed that the corps arrested a cultivator of an ‘expansive’ marijuana farm cultivated annually for that purpose. The NSCDC claimed its operatives arrested the suspect, Amobi Okafor, 45, on February 13, 2020 following credible intelligence report.
According to the statement: “The suspect was arrested at about 12:00 hours same day for allegedly attacking, cutting with machete and injuring one Mathias Ajoagu (security guard at Lake City Secondary School, Nri) ‘m’, aged 71 years and for cultivating large expanse of Indian hemp at the school premises.
“The suspect confessed to the crime and took the NSCDC operatives to the location (behind Lake City Secondary School) where the cannabis is being planted on yearly basis.”
The NSCDC boss went on to declare “a total war” against the cultivation of Indian hemp cultivation and supply in the state.
“Meanwhile, I would like to assure the public that with this arrest, most criminals who are energised after taking this substance will no longer have the supply as the command has cut the chain of supply by nipping it at the bud invariably reducing crime rate in the state”, the statement read.
The message’s undertone, however, did not go down well with the NDLEA hierarchy in the state. The NSCDC statement was taken as an insinuation that the anti-drug agency had been indolent and its complacency exploited by drug peddlers in the state. Hence, it was regarded by NDLEA as a subtle reproach and a brag that NSCDC has been more effective in the fight against drug in the state than the NDLEA whose primary responsibility it is to ensure that illicit drug’s cultivation and peddling remained prohibited.
Subsequently, the incident had taken surprising turns. After taking over the suspect, NDLEA operatives stormed the alleged crime scene and came up with a counter-story to the effect that the NSCDC claim of discovering a large expanse of farmland cultivated with Indian hemp (marijuana) was overhyped and blown out of proportion.
The Commander of NDLEA in Anambra state, Mr Mohammed Idris, described NSCDC’s statement as misleading as there was no ‘large expanse of Indian hemp farm’ at the said location as it claimed.
According to NDLEA’s Public Relations Officer, Charles Odigie, operatives of the anti-drug agency found ‘vegetables and very few Cannabis Sativa nursery plants’ at the location at the bank of Lake Agulu.
He then advanced a theory for the “very infinitesimal amount of the Indian hemp plants seen at the location”––that it “might have been seeds that dropped off on the small vegetable farm and germinated when the suspect who is a farmer might have been smoking same while working on his farmland.”
Idris expressed surprise that rather than issue a report on the Cannabis Sativa at nursery stage which the NSCDC purportedly saw at the location, the sister agency reported a discovery of ‘a large expanse’ of Cannabis Sativa farm.
The tussle became complicated when the suspect, Okafor, denying cultivating a large expanse of Indian hemp farm alleged that his ordeal was as a result of his clash with someone with a link to NSCDC.
He claimed that a fight ensued when he caught one Mathias Ajagu, who works as gateman with Lake City Secondary School, cutting palm fronds from his farm in the company of some students. Ajagu allegedly reported the incident to the local vigilante who took Okafor to their office and subsequently got the NSCDC involved.
Said Okafor: “The Civil Defence people came to my farm and said that I cultivated Cannabis Sativa. They took me to their office where I spent five days in their cell. They later called pressmen to interview me. That was last week Friday. On Monday this week, they handed me over to NDLEA. There is no large farm of Indian hemp here.”
NDLEA branded the arrest and detention of the suspect for up to five days an infringement on his fundamental human rights.
“They have failed to produce the arresting/witnessing officers to give us their statement and witness the weighing/testing of the Cannabis Sativa stem they claimed to be a farm that was recovered in their operation, thereby slowing down further investigation on the case”, the NDLEA statement added.
The NDLEA leadership warned the NSCDC to desist from encroaching on the agency’s area of primary responsibility in order to avoid a clash.
“NSCDC can fight drug abuse, trafficking, cultivation etc, only if they partner with the NDLEA. They don’t have the right to parade a drug suspect and should desist from such to avoid a clash with us,” it stated.
In conclusion, the agency avowed that NDLEA in Anambra state is very much on ground and functioning.
“We will never concede our statutory responsibility to the NSCDC. NSCDC have their statutory responsibilities, so they should face theirs and not encroach into our own,” it said