NDLEA seizes 148,595kg of cannabis in Ondo ******************************** The Ondo State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, said confiscated a total of 148,594.9kg of cannabis sativa, popularly known as marijuana between 2010 and 2013. It also said it secured convictions against 129 persons for various drug related offences from 2009 till date. Spokesman of the agency in the state, Mr. Peter Archibong, told our correspondent in Akure that the fight against the cultivation of marijuana in the Ondo State area had been taken to greater levels since the state Commander, Walter Nicholas, took over in April, 2010. He said a total of 523.2 hectres of cannabis farms had been destroyed in the area since 2011. He said 129,853.62kg of exhibits were destroyed between 2011 and 2012 and the agency secured a court order to destroy additional 54,438.2kg, an exercise that would be carried out very soon. Archibong said, “We have taken the fight to them in the forest. A lot of those involved have either changed their trade or relocated from the state. “We also engaged the traditional rulers and other people in the fight because we had to let them know that allowing the traffickers to use their lands to cultivate the drug was not in their interest.” He noted that the intensity of the fight cost the command the lives of two of its officers between 2010 and 2013, stating that the traffickers would not easily give up, but fight to protect their illicit trade. He said some officers were maimed following injuries during engagements with the traffickers. Describing the mode of cultivation of the drug in the state, Archibong explained that the cannabis farm owners would often go deep into the forest where law enforcement agents would find it difficult to locate, then they would traffic children and other cheap labourers from distant states, blindfolding them at night as they walked long distances into the forest so they would not find their way out on their own. He said the enlightenment of the people of Ondo State had weakened the traders as they no longer found it easy to recruit labour from within the communities.