The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency said it intercepted and seized 207,976 kilogrammes of hard drugs between January 2023 and March 2024 across different seaports in the country.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a document sent to The PUNCH on Sunday.
Giving details of the seizures, Babafemi said that in the first quarter of 2024, 14 suspects were arrested with 16.69kg of cocaine and 11,622.229kg of cannabis sativa.
“167 persons were arrested with 196,336.99kg of various types of drugs from January to October 2023,” he stated.
On the financial worth of the seizures, the NDLEA spokesperson said, the agency refrained from putting a monetary value on those seizures to avoid inadvertently encouraging others to delve into drug trafficking.
“We do not put a value on the seizure to avoid glorifying criminal activities or motivating others into desperation,” he explained.
Reacting to this, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, Dr Muda Yusuf, called for a stricter sanction on offenders.
“People are becoming more desperate to make money from these hard drugs. They are becoming more daring. If the government introduces more deterrent sanctions, perhaps they won’t be that daring or desperate to make quick money and dare to face the risk of committing such crimes.
“I don’t know what the sanction is now, but stricter sanctions are likely to help, because the more of them that are caught and sanctioned, the better for the system. It will send a signal to others around the world that it is a no-go area,” he posited.
