By ADEFAKA SUMAYYAH ADEJOKE
Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has declared his opposition to any attempt to legalise cannabis sativa in the country, even as he vowed that no lawmaker from the state will support such bid in the National Assembly.
Governor Ganduje made the declaration when the Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), led top officials of the Agency on a courtesy visit to him as part of his ongoing War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy visit to the state, on Monday 30 August, 2021.
*Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), fourth from right, Governor Abdulahi Umar Ganduje, fifth from left, acknowledged, flanked by top officials of the Agency and Kano State Government officials, when Marwa paid a courtesy visit to the Kano Government House, on Monday 30th August, 2021.
Details of the visit was contained in a statement, sent to The DEFENDER on Monday, by the NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi.
The NDLEA chairman, Marwa, urged the Kano governor, Ganduje, not to support any bid to legalise cannabis sativa by some elected officials in the country, pointing out that any attempt to legalise drugs across Nigeria will be a setback to the progress made so far by the agency.
He continued that, “The agency is however convinced that the ongoing attempt by some of our elected officials to legalise cannabis has been abused by over 10.6 Million Nigerians”.
On the forfeiture of properties, the NDLEA Cchief executive warned landlords to ensure that they do not accommodate drug traffickers in their houses, because NDLEA will forfeit any property used to store illicit drugs when the offenders are caught.
General Marwa urged the governor to support the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency with 25 hectares of land to build barracks in the state and a property that will house a zonal command office.
In his response, Kano governor Ganduje acknowledged the role played by the NDLEA Chairman, General I Marwa, as equal to the key to winning the battle against insecurity in the country.
While granting the request for land and accomodation for NDLEA zonal command, Dr. Umar Ganduje assured his guest that besides the stands of Kano State Government against drug abuse and trafficking, the predominant religion in the state, Islam is against the twin evils of drug abuse and trafficking.
He added that Kano state has the highest number of Federal lawmakers in the National Assembly and assured that none of them will support any attempt to legalise cannabis.
It will be recalled that between January and now the NDLEA has made 8,634 arrests; 2,776,000 kilograms of drugs worth over one hundred billion Naira have been seized; 1,630 conviction; 3,232 cases in court and over 4,000 drugs users have been counselled and rehabilitated.
