The task of maintaining the environmental and aesthetics of the FCT took a different dimension, last Thursday, when members of the Ministerial Task Team on City Sanitation stumbled on a large expanse of land where plants suspected to be cannabis are being cultivated.
The farm was discovered at the Utako District where the taskforce had gone to clear out a scavenger’s colony around the motor park.
A member of the team, who narrated the incident to our correspondent, said the illicit drug farm was intricately planted between okra and other plants to shield them from the prying eyes of law enforcement agents.
Our correspondent gathered that though no arrest was made as the suspects fled the scene on sighting the taskforce, the team rooted out the plants and handed the exhibits to officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for further investigations.
Though no official statement has so far been made by the FCTA on the worrisome discovery, the Senior Special Assistant on Monitoring, Inspection and Enforcement to FCT Minister, Ikharo Attah, confirmed the incident to our correspondent.
Attah, who led the operation, said the squad was at Utako, Jabi Park, Wuye District in furtherance of its aggressive city sanitation exercise, when they uncovered the cannabis farm in a gmelina forest.
“The FCT minister, Malam Muhammad Bello, actually observed some contraventions around the connecting road Wuye and Utako, which is the Tunde Idiagbon Road, and the minister took all of us to the area showing us several contraventions and gave matching orders to different agencies involved in city sanitation.
“Some of the contravention the minister observed borders on the fact that we have baban-bolas in some areas, we have over grown grasses in some plots of lands which he asked that they should be cleared immediately. He also observed some open manhole covers which he directed that they should be covered quickly by the engineering department. He observed some contraventions of illegal structures around the Utako motor park area, which he asked us to clear. He asked us to clear every illegality around the entire premises.”
Attah added that while carrying out the minister’s directive, “While we were clearing the baban-bolas area close to the Utako motor park, in one small gmelina forest we ran into a small area where some persons planted and grow cannabis, we sacked the area, uprooted the cannabis, we removed them and handed them over to the NDLEA component of our team. We couldn’t make arrest, because everyone around there fled. We just went and uprooted them.”
He revealed that this was not the first time that the team would be making such discovery, but it was the first time a large expanse of land would be found used for cultivation of illicit drug in Abuja.
According to Attah, “This is not the first time. We saw some when went round Jahi area. We saw some little ones which we also removed. But this is the first time we are seeing one so large. But we thank God we are following that and the minister is committed to restoring sanity to the territory.”
