• Kano community rejects N10m bribe in suspected trafficking

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd), has said that the fight against drug trafficking cannot be won through arrests alone, but that traffickers must also lose proceeds of crime for the menace to be defeated.

In a related development, residents of Bajallabe community, FCE Gate 1 axis of Kano metropolis, have rejected aN10 million bribe offered to community representatives and local vigilante personnel to cover up a suspected drug trafficking operation.

The incident occurred early yesterday after the residents reportedly became suspicious of a Golf vehicle parked alongside a motorcycle near a residential building in the area.

Marwa spoke at the ongoing 43rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom, in a presentation titled, ‘Criminal Property and the Criminal Process: How Can We Make It More Effective?’

According to him, a trafficker who loses freedom but retains the accrued fortune has not truly been defeated. He insisted that “the effectiveness of the criminal process should not be measured only by the number of convictions secured. It should also be measured by whether crime is made unprofitable.”

He added that criminal wealth could finance fresh operations, support associates and sustain criminal enterprises, stressing that the ultimate objective should be to deny criminals the proceeds of their crimes promptly and lawfully.

Marwa, whose session was chaired by Judge Wendy Tien, likened arresting a trafficker without dismantling the financial network to “pruning a weed at the stem while leaving its roots undisturbed.”

He said the NDLEA had strengthened its asset recovery strategy under the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act 2004, the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act 2022 and the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022.

Citing the forfeiture of Hook Hotel – a property linked to a fugitive drug suspect, which was recovered through non-conviction-based forfeiture and sold for $4.2 million – he said the proceeds were paid into the federal government’s forfeited assets account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Marwa also disclosed that NDLEA investigators and prosecutors now work together from the beginning of cases, helping to shorten the time between arrests and the securing of restraint orders.

According to him, among other things, the agency froze bank accounts with over $7 million last month alone and secured interim forfeiture orders covering multibillion-naira assets, including filling stations, multi-storey buildings, and exotic vehicles allegedly linked to a fugitive methamphetamine syndicate.

The NDLEA chief also identified faster international cooperation, stronger cross-border recognition of non-conviction-based forfeiture orders and improved forensic accounting capacity as necessary to make asset recovery more effective.

He said the approach had been incorporated into Nigeria’s National Drug Control Master Plan 2026–2030, making financial disruption of drug cartels a sustained national priority.

He summarised the strategy in three principles: speed, preservation of value, and institutionalisation, stressing that dismantling the financial foundation of drug trafficking was essential to defeating the criminal networks.

Meanwhile, a statement by a member of the Media and Publicity Committee of the Kano State Multi-Agency Task Force on Drug Abuse and Illicit Substances, Lamara Garba, alleged that the vehicle was loaded with substances suspected to be illicit drugs.

On approaching the driver for clarification, the driver allegedly offered the community representatives and vigilante personnel N10 million to overlook the matter.

However, the offer was reportedly rejected, and the chairman of the local vigilante group subsequently alerted the Multi-Agency Task Force and the Rijiyar Zaki Division of the Nigeria Police Force as tension began to rise at the scene.