The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency could do more to curb trafficking in illicit drugs
The Senate was recently upset by the huge
numbers of Nigerians on death row in Malaysia and China. This was
sequel to a motion tabled by Senator Gbenga Ashafa entitled: “Nigerians
involvement in illicit global drugs trade and increase in domestic drug
abuse by Nigerian youth.” According to Ashafa, some 153 Nigerians would
soon be executed in these Asian countries for trafficking in illicit
drugs. Besides the image problem created for our country, the senator
representing Lagos East rightly observed that “our nationals are viewed
with suspicion and subjected to demeaning treatment at airports across
the world as a result of this negative perception.”
However, the information from the upper
chamber of parliament was a bit dated. Late last year, a human rights
organisation by the name Legal Defence and Assistance Project (LEDAP)
said almost 300 Nigerians were currently on death row in prisons across
Asian countries. According to Mr. Chinonye Obiagwu, the data
independently collected by LEPAD revealed that 120 Nigerians faced the
prospects of death in Chinese prisons, and over 170 in Indonesia,
Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and five in Qatar, United Arab Emirate and
Saudi Arabia. He estimated that about 16,500 Nigerians were being held
abroad while most of those on death row were convicted of drug-related
crimes.
Even so, the figures from the parliament
once again highlight the increasing desperation of Nigerians in the
narcotic trade. In spite of frequent arrests and stiff punishment, and
the increasing sophistication in technology to combat the illegal
business, many desperate Nigerians are still not willing to let go.
Indeed, Ashafa noted that many of these Nigerians paraded themselves as
university students to undermine the visa system and gained entrance
into Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other drug traffic routes. Over
30 out of 80 foreign students arrested in Malaysia in 2015 were
reportedly Nigerians.
That perhaps explains why across the
world today, several Nigerians are on death row or serving prison terms
and creating enormous image problem for the country. Those in prison
serving terms are even the lucky ones. In many countries, especially in
Asia, it is public knowledge that trafficking in hard drug carries the
ultimate sentence. In June 2008, two Nigerians were executed in
Indonesia for trafficking in illegal drugs. The same fate befell one
Chibuzor Vituz in China in 2009.
In a well sensational outing in April
2015, four Nigerians convicted of drug trafficking were executed along
with other nationals by Indonesian authorities via firing squad. The
Public Communications Division of the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign
Affairs gave the names of the executed Nigerians as Martin Anderson,
Okwudili Oyatanze, Jaminu Abashin and Sylvester Obiekwe. Pleas for
leniency by Nigeria, the United Nations and Amnesty International were
reportedly downplayed by the Indonesian government partly because “at
that point, seven fresh cases of drug trafficking involving Nigerians
had just emerged in Indonesia”.
Yet the huge numbers of drug mules still
jetting out of the country means the enforcement agencies still have
much work on their hands. This is in addition to the fact that Nigeria
is increasingly becoming a destination for narcotics in its own right.
In the past few years, the use of illicit drug use has been widespread
and many of our young citizens are increasingly getting addicted.
The Senate specifically has called for
the restructuring and repositioning of the National Drug Law Enforcement
Agency (NDLEA), the agency saddled with curbing the crime, to be more
effective. Indeed, some of its staffers were reportedly compromised in
the past while the agency has long argued that it is understaffed and
ill-equipped. But the scale of the problem and the consequences for our
image, national security and public health are so severe that something
must be done urgently.
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