Over four Kilometres stretch of a farm suspected to be cannabis sativa worth N1.5 billion in Igalamela/Odolu local government area of kogi state has been destroyed by the state command of the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The state commander of NDLEA, Alfred Adewumi, who stated this while speaking with journalists during the destruction of the farms at Kara forest in Agbokete community, Akpanya Wednesday stated that it is the largest ever discovered in Kogi state.
While lamenting that the state is gradually being turned into a producer of illicit drug, the NDLEA boss expressed worry over the changing status of Kogi state from a transit point to cultivating state of illicit drug. He said he could not believe what he had seen in the farm.
“I want to tell you that I am shocked and perplexed that something as huge as this can be discovered in Kogi state.
“Our assumption is that Kogi state, even though it is surrounded by some states that are notorious for cannabis sativa cultivation , is just simply a transit point because of her strategic location. But to discover that within Kogi state we can have plantation of this huge proportion is something that has shocked me to the bone marrow,” he added.
He noted that the discovery was as result of intelligence gathered by the operatives of the command who had placed the suspect on total surveillance and was subsequently arrested .
“I will simply tell you that it is very enormous plantation of cannabis sativa .It is not just one single farmland. And of course, all of you have been on my entourage and we have walked within farms for over four kilometres and we are still within the farms,” he said.
He stated further that It was actually a community that was cultivating cannabis sativa in this forest adding that it was community business where over four kilometres of arable land were dedicated for cultivation of the illicit drug.
“I must tell you that what we have here is far in excess of the 10- hectares of cannabis sativa farmland discovered earlier on, in excess of the 7.5 hactares of cannabis sativa we discovered sometimes in mid September. If you put all of these farms together, you will see that we will be talking of over 35 hectares of cannabis sativa plantation. To begin to talk about the market value, to be frank with you, we are talking about more than N1.5billion of cultivated illicit drugs here,” he added.
Adewumi commended the Kogi state government for the support given to the NDLEA in Kogi state to be able to embark on the destruction exercise. He added that without the support of the state government, the command won’t have been able to achieve this great mileage in combating drug problems in the state.
He stated that the suspect, Ameh Joseph, will soon be charged to court, adding that those involved in cannabis sativa should desist as the command would leave no stone unturned towards ridding the state of illicit use and cultivation of drugs.
The suspect, Ameh Joseph in an interview with journalists said he is the owner of a section of the farms , adding that he ventured into cannabis sativa business when he had economic crisis .
The Blueprint