The Lagos State Police command on Wednesday destroyed psycho-active drugs and other substances worth over four hundred million Naira (N400,000,000) in the Ikorodu area of the state.
Speaking shortly before the eventual burning of the substances, the Commissioner of Police Lagos state, Mr. Edgal Imohimi said that the substances were recovered by the police in the cause of raids of criminal hide outs and through other sources based on intelligence.
Imohimi who gave the breakdown of the hard drugs and other substances to include Indian hemp, Cocaine, Tramadol, Codeine among others posited that the items were recovered between January 2018 and now.
He added that since the command’s store with drugs and exhibits were filled up, the command got an order of the court to destroy the substances publicly hence the exercise as an evidence that the drugs had been destroyed.
In his words,” you will recall that when I took over office as the Commissioner of Police in this state, I stated clearly that I would fight crime through different fronts. Those of us that are students of Police science will know that there is a very close nexus between drugs and crime and perhaps the two strongest elements for commission of crime is the availability of arms and drugs and that is why I have taken very seriously the fight against drug sales, drug use and proliferation in the city.
“One good thing is that I have been receiving a lot of assistance, I went into early partnerships with other security agencies which are well represented here today and most importantly with the state government represented by the Commissioner are here and this synergy has paid off. Between January (2018) and now, the state command has been able to recover in the course of its activities the following categories of drugs: Indian Hemps, Cocaine, heroin, Tramadol and other psycho-active substances, Codeine etcetera having a whooping street value of well over N400 million.
“In that wise, since most of our stores and exhibit rooms are filled to capacity, we decided to approached the court for permission to publicly destroy these substances and it is in furtherance of this is why we are gathered today so that members of the public will see the substances being destroyed publicly.
While thanking the members of the public who had given the Police useful information, the Lagos Police Chief reiterated that it was in the interest of everybody that they keep their neighborhood safe of drug dealers and clear them off the street so that the children and even the adult would not be able to get hard drugs as easy as they buy candy and a bottle of Coca-Cola.
“Such substances are prohibited, they are harmful to health and they should not be sold easily in the community. Let me reassure Lagosians that this partnership I have with agencies and government of Lagos, the NDLEA, Civil Defense, the DSS, the Fire Service, the Military, all the taskforces and of course the community based security groups that this partnership will be strengthened and we will go from community to community and street to street if necessary to get drugs off our street in our avowed commitment not only to make our neightbourhood safe, but to fight crimes and criminalities”, he concluded.
Send your news, press releases/articles to augustinenwadinamuo@yahoo.com. Also, follow us on Twitter @ptreporters and on Facebook on facebook.com/primetimereporters or call the editor on 07030661526, 08053908817.
