By Eric Ugbor

ABA—The Commander, NDLEA, Abia State Command, Bamidele Akingbade has said their greatest problem with fighting hard drug barons in Abia is the shielding of the culprits by persons and communities.

Akingbade  who disclosed this in his office in Aba said the barriers posed by shielding the real drug barons from the drug agency make it hard for them to be reached and be brought to book.

“One of the biggest problems we face with fighting drug barons in Abia state is that these criminals are condoned and shielded. They are allowed to live freely within the communities and in most cases, they have persons shielding them from security agencies arresting and prosecuting them” he said.

“They motivate their shields by giving them huge sums of money because they make a lot of money from these hard drugs. For instance, a bag of cannabis in Aba now sells from N50, 000 to N55, 000 because there is a high demand for these drugs”, Akingbade said.

The Commander said that he had spoken to the Abia State governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu on plans to rid the state of hard drug dealers which he said if implemented would yield desired results.

He said that one of the ways to get drug barons out of Abia was to form a Joint Task Force on Hard Drugs Eradication to work with NDLEA in sensitive anti hard drug operations in Abia.

Akingbade also recommended the sensitization of community leaders and their youths on the evils arising from shielding such deadly personalities in their society.