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The United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has raised concerns over the increasing smuggling of Tramadol through the nation’s seaports.
It disclosed that the quantity of smuggled Tramadol seized at the seaports has gone up from eight tons in 2014 to 150 ton in 2018
Programme Officer for UNODC, Giuseppe Denies, stated this in Abuja, while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the Global Maritime Security Conference.
He lamented that the Gulf of Guinea and the whole of West African waters is recording high cases of drugs and cocaine trafficking by sea judging by the seizures, adding that Cape Verde, for instance, recently seized 10 tons of cocaine, which is a huge amount in the market.
“Also in Guinea Bissau, the authorities seized large quantities of cocaine majority of which come by sea,” he said.
Speaking, Country Representative of UNODC, Oliver Stolpe, pointed out that although the Nigerian government had done a few things right by signing the Suppression of Piracy and other Offences Act into law, there was the need to follow up with prosecutions.
He pointed out that Gulf of Guinea counties were extremely fragmented, as there existed a crucial gap between countries on how to transmit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) regional frameworks into domestic legislation and policies.
The UNODC chief said the UN was working extensively with Nigerian government and governments of other countries in the region to assist them in legal reform and capacity building for judges, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies.