Edo State NDLEA commander Okey Ihebom told reporters in Benin that his command impounded 71,000kg of Indian hemp and arrested 300 people between January and June 2008, also taking 15 vehicles used to move the drugs.[1] Courts convicted 18 suspects while 10 more awaited prosecution, and Ihebom said the drugs fell into raw weed for local use and a processed type for export.[1] He added that 76,000kg of cannabis had been publicly burnt in the state on 26 January 2008.[1]

That January burning belonged to a 101,652.24kg destruction across Anambra, Delta and Edo states, with Edo’s 75,896kg the largest share against 22,700kg in Delta and 3,056.24kg in Anambra.[2] NDLEA chairman Ahmadu Giade said the Edo command had also found and destroyed 27 hectares of cannabis farmland in the previous ten months, and recalled 31,000kg destroyed in Edo in January 2007.[2] Giade called cannabis the biggest drug challenge in Nigeria and Africa, saying it grows effortlessly in the country.[2]