A non-governmental organization, Human
Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria,
(HURIWA) has reacted to the controversy
trailing an alleged marijuana picture posted
online by popular actress, Tonto Dike.
The actress had posted the picture on the
social media, an act which drew the attention
of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency
(NDLEA).
Its spokesman Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, in his
reaction had said that “The law is clear and
NDLEA has been very clear on the issue. No
one is permitted to sell, use, cultivate or
encourage the use of Indian hemp in Nigeria.
The substance is one of the banned narcotics
in the country.”
In a statement jointly issued by the National
Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko
and National media Director, Miss. Zainab
Yusuf, HURIWA said the anti-drug agency was
“chasing shadows by threatening to arrest a
Nigerian citizen whose alleged ‘marijuana
photograph’ does not constitute hard core
judicial evidence but rather a social media
contraption that may never stand credibility
test in the competent court of law.”
HURIWA urged NDLEA not to waste taxpayers’
fund in pursuing a matter that is substantially
irrelevant and lacks proof.
The Rights group tasked the agency to instead
extend its dragnet and arrest high profile drug
barons and peddlers rather than engage in
‘meaningless voyage of discovery’ and
‘attention seeking’ in the media which the
Rights group described as ‘witch- hunting’ and
an elaborate attempt to undermine the
fundamental freedoms of the actress- Miss
Tonto Dike who is now being framed up with a
trumped up charge of posting ‘marijuana
photograph’ on the social media.
It advised the NDLEA to
concentrate on how to
repair its public image
damaged by the costly mistake it made during
the arrest, detention and investigation of the
popular Yoruba comedian Baba Suwe (the
popular expensive faecis/excreta gamble by the
NDLEA).”
“We are shocked that the NDLEA has deviated
from their time tested mandate of going after
big drug barons who have brought
international opprobrium to the image of
Nigeria and are now engaged in ‘media circus
show’ of attempting to arrest an innocent
Nigerian lady Miss Tonto Dike over an
allegation that falls flat on its face as an
irredeemably unsubstantiated contraption that
will inevitably fail any good test of credibility
in the competent court of law.
“Law enforcement is not done by emotion or
sentiment but on hard core evidence,
empirically tested to be credible. Now that
Miss. Tonto Dike has denied ever appearing in
that allegedly forged photograph on the social
media, NDLEA should leave this lady alone and
go after big barons”.
HURIWA criticized the agency, saying that “the
allegation against Dike at best amount to tissue
of speculative contraption which should not
attract the attention of any serious-minded law
enforcement agency except if it has run out of
idea on how to pursue and arrest high profile
drug barons who have flooded major streets of
state capitals with hard drugs leading to serial
addictions by the Nigerian youth.”
“NDLEA is being clever by half by stating that it
will arrest and jail Miss. Tonto Dike based on
mere untenable evidence of marijuana
photograph on the social media. Why did the
NDLEA fail to seek public clarification from the
Borno state governor who was reported in a
section of the media to have alleged that drug
addicts are in his cabinet? Why is NDLEA after
this lady? Is it because she is a woman
whereas it has not bothered to look the way of
the Borno state governor that alleged the
presence of drug addicts in the state cabinet
nor has the agency gone after the international
musicians who appear regularly in the Nigerian
media puffing what looks like marijuana?” it
asked.
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