Forty-three jumbo bags of cannabis worth N250m smuggled into the country from Ghana have been seized along Agbara/Badagry road by the Nigeria Customs Service.
The Western Marine Command of the NCS disclosed this in a statement.
It quoted the Controller of the command, Yusuf Umar, as saying that the seizure was made possible following a report made available by some good Samaritans.
Umar said on getting the report, he quickly mobilised his officers to the area, where they captured the boat carrying the cannabis but the suspects escaped through the river.
He said, “Thereafter, the patrol team waited for a while to see if they will swim up but they did not. The officers had to bring the cannabis to the base, but no suspects were arrested. It was packed in 43 jumbo bags and the total worth is N250m.”
According to Umar, the seizure of the cannabis was the fourth in the last six months, adding that the command had so far made other seizures valued at N3.35bn in 2016.
He said this was against 13 seizures valued at N6.5m recorded in the same period of 2015.
The Zonal Coordinator in charge of Zone ‘A’ of the NCS, Mr. Charles Edike, was also quoted as saying that a dedicated and purposeful leadership at the NCS had been responsible for the feat.
He said, “We know that the security at the borders had been tightened; Seme, Idiroko, Ibadan, Oyo/Osun, the security in all those places had been tightened and so they don’t have any other place to follow apart from the water. They won’t be able to escape from you.
“For you to have impounded 43 jumbo bags of cannabis, this time from Ghana, we are saying thank you for a job well done. We know the kind of harm this would have done to our society because we don’t know how many men and women will begin to smoke this thing. I am sure this is about the fourth time we have been here to witness the seizures of marijuana.”
