Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) deployed a tractor for the first time to destroy cannabis plantations in the Gbongan Forest Reserve in Ayedaade, Osun State.[1] The operation ran from 9 to 12 October 2014 and cleared 57 hectares holding an estimated 676,800 kg of cannabis, which the agency valued at 6.8 billion naira.[1] The agency’s chairman, Ahmadu Giade, said the tractor was needed because the farms were so large that destroying them by hand took days and weeks.[1] Giade called cannabis the country’s major drug problem.[1]
The financier’s arrest
Officers traced Godspower Chibogu, 51, the suspected drug baron said to have financed the plantations, to his home in Ibadan, Oyo State, and arrested him there.[1] He was taken to the farm to watch the destruction, and his Peugeot 406 saloon car was impounded.[1] Chibogu told investigators he had paid others to farm cannabis for him after his transport business began losing money.[1]
The operation was part of the agency’s 2014 Operation Weed Eaters campaign against cannabis farms, which also announced the 57-hectare, 676,800 kg Gbongan find.[2] Giade promised more barons would be arrested and more plantations destroyed.[1]
