BY UCHE NWOSU
The recent convictions of illicit drug offenders by some courts of competent jurisdiction are to say the least one of the bold steps by the retired Gen Buba Marwa-led National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to exterminate illicit drugs and establish a decent society. It is better to emphasise at this point that no nation makes a meaningful progress if the society is embedded in illegitimate drugs and filled with people whose preoccupation is to sniff or puff this health hazard kind of substance before and after daytime.
It is pathetic that our security officials are sometime more interested in personal gains rather than embarking in this fight, i.e. gathering information and generating intelligence that should help in nipping in the bud this cankerworm and societal menace from planting/farming to manufacturing, from sale to consumption.
The best approach should be to combat this menace through a combination of high stakes prohibition, intelligent driven operations and public education among others (with none of the Nigerian security apparatus offering the excuse that it is preoccupied with its primary assignment). Though Decree No 48 of 1989, as amended in 2004, gives the NDLEA the power “investigate, combat, and eliminate the cultivation, processing, manufacturing, selling, exporting, and trafficking of hard drugs and psychotropic substances”, other security agencies should, as matter as national concern, join the agency to target barons, traffickers, trafficking hubs, cultivation of the illicit crops wherever information leads to their find.
The agency, we all know, does not cover the entire Nigeria’s entry points such as the nation’s airport, seaports, land borders etc. The other sister security agencies, with their wide coverage can help and in doing so, sniff out these unlawful drug cartels, arrest the traffickers, hand them over to the appropriate agencies for prosecution without compromising their own primary duties.
Indeed, the drug war remains a war that the boxer’s glove will never win; it’s a war that must be won via a combination of several factors chief among them are coordination and cooperation, patriotism, commitment, determination, self-conviction, service etc.
It will be beautiful seeing other agencies like Customs, Immigration, Police, Air Force, Navy; Correctional Centres etc form a formidable combine and always share intelligence and information across board. Certainly, with international partners like the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) offering its help, the narco/dealers (Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo”) of this nation will flatly be defeated.
However, the good news is that the retired Gen Buba Marwa-led National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has continued to record some wins in the war. Recently, about 974 offenders were convicted and sentenced to various jail terms including 11 drug kingpins who bagged 254 years imprisonment in the first quarter of 2026 as the NDLEA ramped up the arrest, prosecution and forfeiture of the assets of drug traffickers and their collaborators across the country.
According to information from the office of the Director, Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, of the 974 drug traffickers convicted between January and March, 899 of them are male and 75 females, while a further breakdown of the conviction figure shows that 265 were secured in January, 316 in February and 393 in March.
Top on the list of the 11 drug kingpins who were successfully prosecuted and convicted include a notorious Italy-based 42-year-old businessman, Adegbite Solomon (a.k.a Obama) who was arraigned on 15-count charge before Justice Musa Kakaki of the Federal High Court Lagos in suit number: FHC/L/851C/2025. Delivering his ruling on the matter on 18th March, Justice Kakaki convicted the repeat offender on all 15 counts and sentenced him to a total of 130 years in prison.
The report opined, “Specifically, Justice Kakaki sentenced Adegbite to 15 years’ imprisonment on count 1; 15 years on count 2; 15 years on count 3; 15 years on count 4; 15 years on count 5; 15 years on count 6; 10 years on count 7; four years on count 8; four years on count 9; four years on count 10; four years on count 11; four years on count 12; and 10 years on count 15.
“While the prison sentence is to run concurrently, the trial judge also ordered the revocation of the convict’s pharmacy license and the forfeiture of two branches of his pharmacy store as well as the forfeiture of funds in his three bank accounts to the Federal Government, among others.
“Another top drug kingpin sentenced to long years in prison in the first quarter of the year is 32-year-old Ridwan Animashaun who was arraigned by NDLEA before Justice Nkenoye Evelyn Maha of the Federal High Court, Ibadan, Oyo State in charge number: FHC/IB/97C/2025.
In her judgment delivered on 26th February 2026, Justice Maha convicted and sentenced Animashaun to 25 calendar years for drug trafficking. The convict was first convicted and sentenced to one year imprisonment for a similar offence on 15th July 2022 by Justice Uche Agomoh of the Federal High Court following his arrest by NDLEA along Lagos/Ibadan expressway on 27th March 2022.
Two other convicts who bagged long years imprisonment, the report further narrated, are: Rauf Asogba, 28, and Seun Olaniyi, 24, who were convicted and sentenced to 17 years in jail each by Justice Abiodun Jordan Adeyemi of the Federal High Court Abeokuta, Ogun state on 28th January 2026 after NDLEA arrested and charged them to court for trafficking 1,779 kilograms of skunk in suit number: FHC/AB/160C/2025.
Another set of two convicts got 15 years imprisonment each. They are: 54-year-old Jonathan Nuhu (a.k.a Doctor) who was convicted by Justice Mohammed Nasir Yunusa of the Federal High Court, Kano, Kano state on 17th March 2026 following his arraignment by NDLEA in charge: FHC/KN/CR/96/2023, and 40-year-old Idris Yusuf who was sentenced on 31st March 2026 by Justice Fatima Murtala Nyako of the Federal High Court, Damaturu, Yobe in suit number FHC/CR/6/21, in addition to another eight years sentence for a similar case brought against Yusuf by NDLEA in charge number FHC/CR/DM/16/24.
Uche Nwosu, is a Journalist, based in Umuahia, Abia State
A Shell BP Double Award Winner on Environment and on Investigative Journalism in the Year 2000
