•Recovers 559kg of Cannabis Sativa worth N9.9 m
•Hardship lured us into it – suspects

By Evelyn Usman

Men of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Beecroft , have smashed a syndicate which specialised in illegal exportation of hard drugs through the waterways, to neighbouring West African countries and arrested two fishermen and a boat operator.

The suspects, one of who was a Beninois, were apprehended at the early hours of Monday while conveying some substance later discovered to be cannabis sativa, otherwise known as marijuana, in a fibre boat with the inscription MY Destiny.

Preliminary investigation as gathered, revealed that the suspects conveyed the substance from Ikare waterside and were heading towards Seme border for onward transportation to the Republic of Benin when they were intercepted around Ojo area of the state.

The street value of the substance which was neatly packaged inside 11 sacks which weighed between 40kg and 68kg, was put N9.9 million.

Shortly before handing the suspects over to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA for further investigation, yesterday, the Commander, NNS Beecroft, Commodore Morris Eno , explained that “NNS Beecroft while on patrol , intercepted a fibre boat named MY DESTINY which was conveying three males and 11 packages of substances suspected to be cannabis sativa at Ikare waterways. Accordingly, this afternoon, the men and substance will be handed to the NDLEA for further investigation and possible prosecution.

Beecroft suspects

In line with the mission of the Chief of Naval Staff, I want to restate the resolve of the NNS Beecroft to tackle all forms of criminalities in its area of operations. Criminal elements are hereby warned to desist from perpetrating crime on our waters as it will no longer be business as usual”.

Confession

The suspects however denied ownership of the substance, claiming that they were hired to convey it to Ojo, from where they would trans-load it into another boat to Seme.

One of them, Aikiti Naitey (33), a Beninois, said “I am a fisherman, I was just thinking of the bad catch for the day when one of them( pointing to one of his alleged partners in crime) called me to join them to load the bags inside the boat. After loading it, he did not pay me. He said I should follow him to Ojo, where he claimed that the owner would be waiting to pay us. We had barely started the movement when we were arrested. I was only looking for money to feed , since I did not catch any fish to sell”, he said.

On his part, Jelili Sunday, (25) who hails from Lagos State , mentioned one Amos as owner of the substance recovered from them.

Sunday said “I am a boat operator. But for one month now, business has been bad. We only compliment it with carrying goods outside. I would have been paid N20,000, had I succeeded in conveying the substance to the designation. We started our movement at about 1a.m. because that was the instruction of the owner, who was waiting for us at Ojo. I intended to give part of the money to my wife to start up a business while I manage the rest. But I did not know that I was being led on a path to jail”.

The third suspect, Damilola Okunuju, a boat conductor and a fisher man claimed not to be aware of the substance. He said “my only concern was the money (N20,000) that was to be paid at the end of the service. If I had known that the substance was this expensive, I would not have accepted N20,000”.

The NNS Beecroft boss further revealed that a fishing trawler, FT Stephanie, allegedly engaged in illegal fishing, was also intercepted by men of the command, same day during a routine patrol. Eno said: “Preliminary investigation revealed that the fishing permit of the vessel has expired, thus she had no valid permit to fish in Nigerian waters. Additionally, the five crew members on board could not give any explanation for their act, hence the arrest of the crew. In line with the standard practice, the suspects are now being handed over to the Federal Department of fisheries for further investigation”.