The Nigerian Army has turned over 5,000 wraps of suspected marijuana and three suspects to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in Lagos.
Brigadier General Adegoke Adetuyi, Brigade Commander, 9 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, while performing the ceremony on behalf of the Army, expressed the determination of the Army to fight drug trafficking and traffickers in the country.
Handing over the substance and suspects to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, officer, the Commander of the 9 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Brigadier General Adegoke Adetuyi, said on the 22nd of this month troops of 192 battalion deployed at a checkpoint along the international route leading to one of the borders covered by the brigade intercepted a suspected international drug syndicate smuggling a truck load of substance suspected to be Cannabis Sativa (Marijuana) from Ghana, around Owode in Ogun state.
The substance was concealed in a false created compartment.
General Adetuyi explained that they travelled through Togo and Benin Republic before they were arrested at Ajilete military checkpoint .
He used the occasion to warn those perpetrating crime in the 9 brigade area of responsibility to desist or face the wrath of the law.
The top military official emphasised that the brigade would continue to collaborate with other sister agencies within its qrea of responsibility to protect the territorial integrity of the country, through the south western border.
The representative of the NDLEA at the event, Assistant Commander Narcotic, Mr Innocent Adinni, said the Agency was doing everything possible to bring drug usage to the bearest, since its objectives were the big dealers.
Mr Adinna expressed gratitude to the Nigerian Army for its efforts, saying that those arrested will be prosecuted and appropriately sanctioned if proven guilty.
Speaking to Radio Nigeria, the suspects conveying the illegal drugs 43year old farmer, Mr. Olaseinde Olutosin, from Ekiti state, said he was introduced to it in December last year by Kwame, a Ghanaian; while 25 year- old Augustine Adozie, from Oji River in Enugu state, said that was his second attempt as he got one hundred and fifty from one Ahlaja who is the dealer.
The third Suspect, 44year old Clement Obayere from Kabbah in Kogi state, a forex dealer at border, claimed Ignorance of the substance, as he only asked for a lift in the vehicle.