- Hotels, clubs, bars, aid illicit drug dealings, distribution
According to the latest update by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, 14.3 million Nigerians have alarmingly become drug addicts.
Speaking recently in Kaduna, a Zonal Commander, NDLEA, Sule Momodu, revealed that Kaduna State had a 10 per cent prevalence rate among the over three million drug abusers in the North West.
Momodu lamented that the proliferation of controlled drugs such as tramadol and pentazocine buoy bandits and terrorists to wreak havoc on communities.
In some other regions, South West, South South and South East to be precise, drug abuse has been enabling cultists and gangsters to unleash mayhem on themselves and innocent citizens.
According to experts, the global annual illicit drug trade is estimated at between $300 billion and $500 billion.
While drug dealers in Nigeria have been smiling to the banks owing to increasing patronage, investigation by The Point has revealed that commercial motorcyclists popularly known as Okada riders are being used as delivery agents in a bid for the dealers to easily evade arrest.
In Osun and Kwara States, some okada riders are doing more than carrying passengers from one place to another. Their operations now include serving as middlemen between illicit drug dealers and users in some parts of the state.
Findings have revealed that some Okada riders in the state are distributors of illicit drugs engaged by the drug dealers.
Investigations have also indicated that the Okada riders have become syndicate and are recruiting unemployed youths into the drug distribution business.
It was gathered that illicit drug users now order their preferred drugs online but use Okada riders to do the delivery for them.
After the order, the Okada riders would meet the drug dealer at a club or on an expressway where he would collect the drugs for onward delivery to the consumers.
The illicit drug users, according to investigations, also usually receive the drugs at hotels, clubs and beer parlour joints.
Among the drugs the compromised motorcyclists distribute are colorado, tramadol, molly, codin, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs.
According to sources among the motorcyclists, those serving as agents for the illicit drug dealers and users make a minimum of N10, 000 profits per day and an average of N50, 000 in a week.
The operations of the compromised Okada riders covered Osogbo, Ede, Iree, Offa (Kwara State) and Ile-Ife, according to credible sources.
It was also gathered that the compromised Okada riders do carry unsuspecting passengers going along their route to disguise and have safe riding to their destinations.
Checks by The Point correspondent in Osogbo revealed that drug sellers operate freely in some squalor around Oke-Baale, Gbaemu and other areas.
Whenever these Okada riders arrive in the environment, they are being led into a corner by one of the agents who might have looked around to see if there are no security agents around before leading the Okada man inside a rickety house being used for illicit trading.
The Point gathered that increasing hospitality business in the state has been partly responsible for worsening illicit drug dealings.
The advent of night clubs, lounge and beer parlours is a major contributor to rising drug abuse cases as consumers besiege these locations to take illegal substances and transact their drug venture.
A commercial motorcyclist who does not want his name in print said that he was contacted for the illegal business but he declined the offer for the fear of being caught by security agents.
The Okada rider disclosed that he first considered the offer because of the money involved but he later turned it down after being warned by one of his relatives.
According to him, “One of my friends, who is also an Okada rider, contacted me three weeks ago to introduce me to the business of distributing drugs for the drug dealers. He told me they needed more bike men to join the business. But I seek the opinion of a relative who warned me not to be involved because of the consequences.
“The relative told me he has a brother who is currently serving jail terms because he was caught distributing illicit drugs. That was why I declined. The friend who called me has been in the business since January this year.
“He told me he carried a female drug dealer as a passenger. From there, the lady asked him to help in distributing drugs and he accepted the offer. The guy usually waits for the lady at a popular club around Dele Yes Sir, Osogbo to take drugs for delivery to her customers.
“The contacts of the people who ordered the drugs online will be given to him to deliver. I once followed him when his bike had a fault. We went to different hotels and locations in Osogbo and Ede. But I can’t do the business; I am afraid.”
Meanwhile, the Spokesperson of NDLEA, Osun Command, Charles Odigie, explained that the commercial motorcyclists are the major problem in the fight against illicit drugs.
Odigie decried the rate some commercial motorcyclists serve as middle men for the dealers and consumers.
He said drug dealers are so smart that they use the Okada riders as a shield to avoid arrest by NDLEA or other security agencies.
Odigie noted that, “The drug dealers are very smart. They don’t want to have direct contact in their dealings. They are always skeptical and afraid that we can set them up.
“What they do is to use the bike man as a shield. They send them to pick up drugs from motor parks and also to deliver to consumers. We don’t usually get to arrest the main dealer because they have informants working for them.
“We will only appeal to Osun people to give us information. We can only work on intelligence reports. However, NDLEA Osun Command is working round the clock to make the state hot for those involved in such business. We have made several successes in that regard recently.”
