On Monday in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, drug merchants and touts launched an enraged assault on the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration (NAFDAC) and Control, as well as the mobile police stationed there.
According to reports, the attack happened during a raid by the agency’s enforcement team at the FCT’s Area One vehicle park. The squad was searching for fake, unregistered, and phoney cannabis.
While the enforcement action was going on, the park’s touts and hawkers began throwing stones and other sharp objects at the journalists and crew.
While the enforcement team and journalists fled the park, it took the involvement of the mobile police, who fired intermittent shots into the air and used tear gas to disperse them.
Unfortunately, vandals damaged two of NAFDAC’s vehicles.
In an interview with media following the operation, the Assistant Chief Regulatory Officer of the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of the Federal Task Force, NAFDAC Umar Suleiman, stated that the Department of State Security’s intelligence on the drug hawkers’ activities at the vehicle park led to the raid.
Suleiman said, “This exercise that we just conducted at the Area 1 motor park was a result of the intelligence we received from the DSS since last year, a lot of hawkers were there selling their products and many people patronising them and that was why we raided the park.
The attack is a normal thing for us in the investigation and enforcement department, that is the reason we always go with armed Mopol and Investigating Police Officers in case of any arrest.
But to my surprise, we had not done half of the work when the drug hawkers absconded but mobilised in full force against us, throwing stones at us and destroying the glasses of the vehicles but with the gunshot and tear gas released on them by the armed Mopol, they soft pedalled and we had to leave the place to reinforce and go back next time.”
According to Suleiman, the squad leader, the drugs found during the operation had a value of approximately N5 million.
He detailed that the enforcement team seized a number of prohibited substances, including aphrodisiacs, cocodamol, rohypnol, Dizapam, and Tramadol (500 and 225 mg).
