A 31-year-old Senior Secondary School II dropout, Mary Donejay, has narrated how her ex-convict boyfriend, Henry Daniel, lured her into the Indian hemp business in Ondo State with a promise to finance their wedding with the proceeds.
Both suspects were arrested alongside 11 others by operatives of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Ondo State Command during the destruction of 255 hectares of cannabis farms in five council areas in the state said to be worth N900 million.
In an interview, the bar attendant, Mary Donejay, said: “I met Henry Daniel in Oba-ile where I was working in a restaurant. He proposed to me after some months of dating him. I was hopeful for a blissful marital life.“He told me that he was an ex-convict that deals in ‘Igbo’ business. He told me to join him to harvest cannabis and that we will get married, promising that he will open a provision shop for me and as a Senior Secondary School II dropout. I saw it as a good deal for me.
“The idea made me happy because I have two children from another man, who are with my mother at the moment. All I do for Daniel is to cook here in the forest.
“We were informed that the NDLEA guys were around. But before I could run away, they had already rounded me up, but my fiancee bolted leaving me behind.
“I have seen him selling cannabis to people on two occasions, but I never asked how much he sold the stuff.”
The agency’s Deputy Director, Strike Force, Mr Nnadi Chidi, said: “We found her on a quarterly harvested 10 hectares of cannabis farmland at Ogbese Government forest reserve with 16.5kg of Cannabis Sativa.
“All the suspects will be charged to court after investigation has been carried out,”
NDLEA arrests 248 suspected drug traffickers in Ebonyi
Meanwhile, the agency, yesterday, revealed that it has arrested over 248 suspected drug traffickers in 2021 in Ebonyi State.
The agency also seized over 243,520 kilograms of drugs within the period under review in the state.
Deputy Commander of the agency in the state, Amaka Ekwalor, stated this at a pre-event press briefing for an advocacy and sensitisation programme for Izzii/Abakaliki Federal Constituency with the theme “Support the war against drug abuse.”
She noted that 20 of the suspected drug traffickers, all males aged between 20 to 65 years were successfully prosecuted and convicted at the Federal High Court.
According to her, cannabis accounted for 183,313 kilograms of the total drugs seized within the said period.
She lamented that the menace of drug use is taking a frightening dimension in the country despite measures put in place by the government. Continue Reading
