NDLEA Raided Abraka To Extort Money, Not Fight Sale Of Hard Drugs —Uwalaka

By Daniel Dafe

President General, Ohanaeze Ndi-Igbo, Abraka, Chief Nnamdi Uwalaka, has condemned the recent raid by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, that left many injured in Abraka.

Oasis Magazine learnt that recentlly, officers of the agency, stormed Urhuoka-Abraka to arrest a yet-to-be identified owner of a patent medical shop alleged to be into sale of hard drugs.

One Aghogho was shot that we learnt is still at the Delta State University Teaching Hospital, Oghara , receiving medical attention.

Speaking to Oasis Magazine, Chief Uwalaka, who is also the Public Relations Officer, PRO, Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, Abraka Division, said that the NDLEA officials did not come through the right procedures, just as he said that he was informed that the police in the community were not aware of the raid before the operation.

He said: “If not for the intervention of men of the police force, I don’t know what would have happened to that police division because the youths thought they worked together with the NDLEA. So, I want to appeal to the high authority especially the IG to look into it. Few years ago when CSP Hassan was here as the DPO, SARS came in from nowhere and started shooting bike riders. If not my very self and the Army captain that was on ground then, it would have been a disaster. The youths came out and blocked the road and said officers came in and were extorting residents.”

He continued: “We don’t have patent medical stores in Abraka  again; we now only have drug stores. They are all aware that it is drugs they all sell. Many of them settle people and because of “it’s our community, it’s our community,” they allow it. If you watch closely, an average youth in Abraka cannot sleep without taking drugs and where do they get it from? From the chemist shops and when you go there all you see is just regular drugs like panadol etc but they are just there.

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“You see someone that says he has a chemist shop but leaves in a mansion or is building a mansion. How? And these boys after taking those drugs start to misbehave and we are talking of sanitising this community and instead of NDLEA to sanitise this community, they are now creating more problems. They did same at Ozoro sometime ago in Owelogbo precisely.”

He opined that the community was already angry over certain things and looking for a way to fight the police but they did not know that police officers were not involved.

“It is not police issue and most of the arrest in Abraka is not by the division. They are done by visiting police. Sometimes they just say EFCC is in town and they might not even be EFCC. They will just come, collect money and go. So if they are arresting, it’s good and fine because they are sanitising the community but this bribe that they are collecting is causing more chaos..