The Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ondo State Command, has arrested a middle aged man, Ayodele Osuya, with 228 Kilogrammes of Indian Hemp.
The NDLEA state Commandant, Mr Kayode Raji, made the disclosure while briefing newsmen at the command’s headquarters in Akure,.
The commandant said his men had been on Osuya’s trail for a long time.
Raji said that the suspect had the Indian hemp sealed in the booth of a Toyota Camry Car and was arrested with 309 pieces of the Indian hemp weighing 228kg.
“We have been on his trail for a very long time and at a time, we also suspected that he had become also very suspicious and almost got wind he was being trailed, so we laid low.
“We used a lot of characters and shade so that our identity will be concelead, but at the end of the day, on the March 29, he was nabbed at a place called Quarter Guard in Akure, Ondo State here.
“And a compressed cannabis, carefully stacked in the booth of the car.
“it’s about 309 pieces of compressed cannabis, which weighed about 228kg of cannabis, which is a huge number,” he said.
Raji, who said that dealing and cultivating cannabis paid nobody, and urged people to steer clear of it.
He said that the command was ever ready to combat what he called ” merchant of death” frontally in the state.
The commandant further said that,”It is whether you get out of the state or you get out of the business.”
Osuya, while speaking with newsmen said he ventured into the business to fend for his family.
Osuya said he was recently kidnapped and had to sell all he had to free himself from the kidnapper’s den.
“I only just try to help my family because of the issue I have had earlier.
“I have nobody to help me so that is why I have to get myself involved in this so as to cater for my family.
“I just started this year, because last year, Fulani kidnapped me, I sold all I have, my building, my vehicle.
“I have nobody that can help me, then I had to sell what I have to free myself,” he said.
He, however, said he was not the owner of the vehicle; “I only borrowed it to enable me attend a burial ceremony before my arrest”.