The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency destroyed more than 5,000 hectares of cannabis farms at Ala Forest in Akure North Local Government Area of Ondo State.[1][2] Over 200 armed officers of the agency’s Special Enforcement Team, drawn from the country’s six geopolitical zones, carried out the two-day sting operation under team leader Sunday Zirange and on the directive of chairman Mustapha Abdallah.[1]
Fourteen suspects, male and female, were arrested on the farms, and community leaders were interrogated over their roles.[1][2] Two further suspects who abandoned food cooking in a hut at the team’s approach were later apprehended in a nearby farm.[1] About 100 labourers were engaged to destroy the cannabis in the presence of journalists, community leaders, politicians and religious leaders.[2]
Zirange lamented that Ondo was rated highest for cannabis planting in the South West and urged government to encourage cocoa and other cash crops so youths would abandon Indian hemp.[2] He warned that cannabis cultivation was clearing the remaining thick forest and damaging the ecosystem.[2] About 72 tonnes of cannabis had been seized in the Ondo forest zone the previous year.[2] The agency advised the state government to promote alternative farming to move planters toward cocoa.[1]
