NDLEA Discovers 600-Acre Hemp Farm In Ekiti

Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Friday discovered a 600-acre hemp farm at Ode-Ekiti in the Gbonyin Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

Speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ado-Ekiti, Commandant of the NDLEA in Ekiti, Mr Dele Akingbade said the hemp farm was the largest individually-owned hemp farm in Ekiti.

According to him, the cost of the hemp farm was too huge to be determined immediately. He described the discovery of the farm as one of the `biggest feats’ of the agency in the state.

Akingbade said the agency made the discovery on a vast expanse of land on July 24, following a tip-off by concerned members of the public.

The NDLEA chief said that four suspects in the matter, all men, were arrested while working on the farm.

He said that the suspects, who confessed to being labourers, disclosed that the owner of the farm paid them N1,000 per day as wage.

Akingbade said that the agency had been making efforts to arrest the owner of the farm through a 24-hour surveillance mounted by men of the agency.

He said that the suspects, who were still in the agency’s custody, would be prosecuted soon.

The commandant said that the size of the farm has drawn international attention, as officials of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime from Vienna had visited the farm.