NDLEA intercepts 1.264 tons of Indian hemp in Jigawa • Suspect says it’s plaintain

The Jigawa State command of the National Drug Law enforcement Agency (NDLEA) recently intercepted I.264 tons of Cannabis Sativa (Indian hemp) along Birnin Kudu-Maiduguri road from two suspects.
The two suspects, Suleman Abdullahi and Abdulwahab Surajo, were arrested along with their bus with registration number XG192 KMC, carrying the Indian hemp which was coming from Kano and heading for Maiduguri, according to the suspects.
Parading the two suspects and the exhibits to journalists at the command headquarters in Dutse, the state commander of the agency, Mr Ibarahim Abdul, said the bus was involved in an accident at Birninkudu where the driver, who was the prime suspect, died on the spot.
The commandant explained that “this is the biggest arrest we’ve ever made. The quantity of the drugs intercepted is the highest ever in the history of the NDLEA activities in the whole North West.”
According to him, the arrest followed a tip off by his men after receiving information from some good Samaritans who alerted the command on the movement of the bus.
Abdul added that luck ran against the suspects when the eagle-eyed NDLEA operatives spotted them and in a bid to escape, they ran into a ditch which held them to a halt.
The commandant also revealed that the two suspect arrested had revealed that they loaded carrots to Delta State and from there, they reloaded the Indian hemp, which was meant for delivery at Maiduguri, Borno State.
He then appealed to the state government, nongovernmental organisations and the general public to partner with the agency in the area of public enlightenment on the danger of abuse of narcotic drugs and other psychotropic substances.
“I want to unequivocally state that, NDLEA, Jigawa State, would leave no stone unturned in the fight against illicit traffic, until we make Jigawa uninhabitable to the merchants of all forms of hard drugs,” the commandant said.
Speaking to Crime & Security one of the arrested suspects, who gave his name as Suleman Abdullahi, said “we are the victims of circumstance, we don’t know anything about the goods, our creator knows this is true.
“The issue is still surprising to me because between me and Allah, who made my life, what we loaded in our bus was plantain (Agada) and it was plantain all the while, up till the time we had the accident, but when we were arrested, I saw it change from plantain to this substance.
“I’m the driver’s friend, I’m not his boy. I lost my job and that was why I agreed to join him before I get another job and that was my first trip with him. I never knew the content in the bus was cannabis.”
He added that “what surprised me most was that since we started the journey from Edo State, we’ve crossed many police, military and other security check points and once we told them that the load was plantain, we were allowed to pass.
“Even when we got to the military check point in Abaji, they stopped and conducted a search on the vehicle and saw plantain. The driver even gave them five pieces of plantain,” Suleman maintained.
Adding that “It was only the driver that went to where the vehicle was loaded, because he kept us at one junction to eat while he alone went to load the goods and came back to where he picked us and we continued our journey to the North,” Suleman noted.
On his part, the second suspect, Abdulwahab Surajo, who claimed to be the son of the late driver’s elder sister, could not utter a word