The National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency’s (NDLEA) Ondo State Command has destroyed 255 hectares of cannabis farms in the state.
The value of cannabis destroyed was estimated to be around N900 million.
The operatives also demolished 50 hectares at Ogbese, 19 hectares at Ipele, and 58 hectares at Okeluse, as well as 30 hectares of cannabis plantation at Ala, five hectares along the Ogbese river bank, and Omolowo/Powerline forest.
Large cannabis nursery beds and seeds, according to sources, were also destroyed.
The operation, which lasted a week and involved Special Strike Force agents from Ondo, Edo, Osun, Oyo, and Ekiti states, resulted in the arrest of 13 suspects.
250 kg of cannabis seeds, 63.85 kilogram of cannabis weed, 20.85 kg of dried cannabis, two irrigation water pump equipment, and over 1,500 meters of hose were seized during the operation, according to Mr Nnadi Chidi, the Deputy Director of the NDLEA Strike Force, who led the team.
The exercise, according to Chidi, was part of General Buba Marwa’s determination to reducing Nigeria’s drug problem to the bare minimum.
According to him, the agency’s state command received information about large irrigated cannabis cultivation spread across five local government areas of the state, prompting the deployment of the Strike Force unit and officers from the state commands of Ondo, Ekiti, Edo, Oyo, and Osun to completely destroy the illegal cannabis cultivation.
According to the team leader, “the goal of the irrigated weed farming by the cultivators was to maintain supply to drug users throughout the year.
He assured that the Strike Force would sustain the war against cannabis cultivation, adding that there would be no safe haven for cultivators of the illicit drugs in Nigeria.
Ondo State Commander of NDLEA, Mr Kayode Raji in his comment vowed that it would not be business as usual regarding the cultivation of cannabis sativa in the state.
“When I resumed duty three months ago, I sounded a note of warning to those into the drug business, that it will no more be business as usual.
“Before now, Ondo State had assumed a kind of notorious nature, not only in Nigeria but in West Africa, in terms of hard drugs, particularly cannabis plantation. If these hard drugs are good for human consumption, the Federal Government and the world would not have come together to prohibit their cultivation. It is better we see it as a non-money making venture but as a criminal offence,” he said.
One of the suspects, Olu Wire, who hails from Kwale in Delta State, confessed that he was hired to cultivate the cannabis plantation.
Another suspect, 31-year old Mary Donejay from Auchi in Edo State, said she was promised by her lover, an ex-convict, that he would marry her after he had harvested the 10 hectares of cannabis farmland they both planted.