The Senate on Tuesday considered passed a Bill which seeks to amend the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act.
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Senator Hezekiah Dimka sponsored the Bill titled: “a Bill for an Act to amend the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act CAP N 30 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.”
Dimka in his lead debate noted that the NDLEA Act provides for stringent penalties for persons involved in the importation and exportation of hard drugs such as cocaine or heroin.
He noted that the penalties range from 15 years to life imprisonment which is the minimum penalty.
He expressed worry that in spite of the fact that the Supreme Court has held that the minimum penalty for those dealing in such hard drugs was a term 15 years, some judges of the Federal High Court had continued to pass ridiculously light and illegal sentences on those convicted.
“Rather than a term of imprisonment of 15 years, the maximum sentence passed on any convict was a term of three years for heroin.
“Some of these have been as low as four months imprisonment for 1.44 kilogrammes of cocaine.
“Worse still is the fact that when some of the Judges pass these light terms of imprisonment, the convicts are further given options of fines which are not provided for under the NDLEA Act,” he said.
Dimka further said that the arbitrariness that was being perpetrated by the trial judges could lead to corrupt practices and encourage the illicit drug trade.
He said that the proposed amendment would close any loophole by having a clear, unambiguous and unequivocal provision that Judges could not vary the sentences provided by the Act.
“There is equally a minor but significant error in the principal Act; the word ‘heroine’ instead of ‘heroin’.
“The two words mean different things and are not synonymous.
“An amendment is therefore being proposed to change the word “heroine” which means a girl or woman who does something brave or good to “heroin” which means a powerful illegal drug made from morphine which is intended in the Act.”
Senator Istifanus Gyang and other senators supported the Bill.
Gyang said that prevalence and menace of drugs and its destructive effects on the lives of citizens particularly youths had attained an alarming proportion.
“A whole generation is at risk of being lost to drugs. The production and sale of illicit drugs require strong regulation and enforcement powered by NDLEA.
“And this bill is seeking to strengthen and stiffen the sanctions against drug abuse in such a way that it will end in breaking and ending the destructive drug trade,” he said.
Gyang further said that one of the ways to address the menace was to restrict accessibility to drugs adding that without stiffer sanctions, drug barons would persist in their nefarious practices.
In his contribution, Senator Abba Moro said that the bill “is germane to the circumstances in which we find ourselves here.
“The scary situation in which we find ourselves in this country today emanates partly from a combination of factors of the proliferation of firearms and light weapons.
“The second dimension to our very scary security situation is the question of drugs.”
He said that what the country had in these unfortunate circumstances was not necessarily the absence of laws or their enforcement but the loopholes in the laws.
“The loopholes we have in our laws provide avenues for criminals to evade the enforcement of our laws,” he said.
Moro said that amending the NDLEA Act would make enforcement of drug laws easy and effective.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Drugs and Narcotics for further legislative work and to report back to plenary within four weeks.
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