14 arrested with 16 bags of Indian hemp

Fourteen forest encroachers were yesterday paraded by the officials of the Ondo State Ministry of Natural Resources for allegedly being in possession of a substance suspected to be Indian hemp. The suspects were caught with 16 bags of Indian hemp during the anti-encroachment exercise carried out by the ministry. One of the suspects, Hamed Musa (25), is from the crisis-ridden town of Bama in Borno State while the other suspect, Sunday Samuel (23), hails from Eboyin State. The Commissioner for Natural Resources, Mr Tunde Atere, said the arrest was part of the ministry’s anti-encroachers’ exercise to rid forest reserves of Indian hemp cultivators.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) had accused the state government of allowing its forest reserves to be used for the cultivation of Indian hemp. However, the ministry officials handed over the suspects and 16 bags of Indian hemp to the NDLEA in Akure, the state capital, yesterday. The commissioner, however, denied that officials of his ministry were aiding and abetting suspects to cultivate Indian hemp in the forest reserves. Atere described the allegation credited to a top official of NDLEA as disheartening and unfortunate, saying that all suspects arrested by the officials of the ministry had always been handed over to the agency for prosecution.
The commissioner said the suspects were arrested in Owo forest reserve about midnight. Atere expressed the readiness of the ministry to rid the reserves in Ala, Ose and Owo of the illegal activities of Indian hemp cultivators. He noted that the suspects were arrested in collaboration with a Joint Task Force set up by the ministry. According to him, it took the officials over seven hours in the thick forest to arrest the suspects.
Atere noted that three other suspects were arrested last year in Ala forest reserve with 95 bags of Indian hemp and were handed over to NDLEA for investigation and persecution. The NDLEA Assistant Commander, Operations and Intelligence, Olorunfemi Agboalu, who received the suspects, promised that they would be charged to court after preliminary investigation. Agboalu said the agency was out to bring to book all economic saboteurs, adding that criminals should relocate from the state in their own interest.
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