Customs intercepts FUNAAB bus loaded with cannabis

...Management vows to carry out proper investigations

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By Sola AJIBIKE (Abeokuta)

NIGERIA: THE Ogun State Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has apprehended a bus belonging to Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) for conveying cannabis and smuggled quantities of rice.

The state Comptroller of the command, Sani Madugu, said that the vehicle with registration number FUNAAB 50B-100FG was carrying 211 compressed bible size illicit drugs and the rice.

According to him, the driver, Abiodun Abolade, who was heading towards a neighbouring town in the state last Saturday, took advantage of the government vehicle to convey the seized cannabis, but luck ran against him.

“A vehicle of this nature is used to convey agriculture students for outdoor academic activities particularly to farms and also convey other valuables in a university environment, unfortunately it has become a tool for transporting illicit drugs and smuggled rice,” Madugu said.

The Comptroller stated that the command will continue to work tirelessly in tackling smuggling activities in the state.

While also speaking on the arrest, the state Commander of the Nigeria Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Bala Faggi, described the arrest as remarkable.

Faggi said that the NDLEA will carry out proper investigation into the attempted smuggling of the illegal drugs and the contraband rice.

But, in its reaction, the management of FUNAAB has disassociated itself from the arrest of Abolade and promised to investigate the matter.

“As a responsible and law-abiding organisation, the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Ogun State, is committed to upholding all statutory enactments guiding its establishment, subsisting legislation in Ogun State and the nation in general,” the Head, Directorate of Public Relations, Mrs. Emi’ Alawode, said in a release.

She added: “This uncompromising and non-negotiable stance had always and severally been hammered to bona fide members of staff and students of the University.

“However, the attention of the University has been drawn to an unfortunate incidence that was said to have occurred on Saturday, August 12, 2017, in which one of its drivers, using the University official vehicle in his possession, was said to have been apprehended along Olorunda, Ogun State by law enforcement agents, for allegedly being in possession of substances suspected to have been smuggled.”

“Already, the University has put the necessary machinery in place, to carry out proper investigations, to ascertain what actually transpired on the said date on one hand, while law enforcement agents, on the other hand, would be allowed and supported to perform their statutory duties in the overall interest of all citizens,” Alawode further said.

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