Sowore Faults NDLEA Over Cannabis Farm Destruction In Edo
Human rights activist and publisher Omoyele Sowore has criticised the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for destroying two cannabis plantations in Edo State, arguing that Nigeria should legalise and regulate the crop rather than continue burning what he described as economically valuable produce.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Sowore, a former presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, said the agency’s approach amounted to wasted economic opportunity at a time when Nigeria is battling widespread poverty. “It is idiotic… wake up, put on uniforms, march into farms, and set economically viable crops worth millions of dollars ablaze while your country is drowning in multidimensional poverty,” he wrote, calling instead for regulation that would allow the country to tap into cannabis for medicinal and industrial use, create jobs and generate revenue.
His comments followed an NDLEA operation in which the Edo State Command destroyed two cannabis plantations and arrested ten suspected traffickers. The State Commander, Mitchell Ofoyeju, said the first farm, in Ugboku, Igbanke Forest, in Orhionmwon Local Government Area, measured about 0.7 hectares with an estimated yield of 1,749.26 kilogrammes, and led to the arrest of one suspect, Agholor Elebojie. A second farm, measuring roughly 1.15 hectares with an estimated yield of 2,879.72 kilogrammes, was also destroyed, alongside the recovery of 12.4 kilogrammes of processed cannabis. Separately, ten other suspects were arrested in Ovia North East and Oredo local government areas with cannabis, methamphetamine, tramadol and other substances. Ofoyeju said the raids followed the NDLEA chairman’s directive to dismantle illicit drug locations nationwide.
The Edo operation is part of a much larger national effort under NDLEA chairman Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa, who took charge of the agency in January 2021. Between 2025 and the first half of 2026, the agency recorded 29,262 arrests, 5,225 convictions and seized more than 5.3 million kilogrammes of illicit drugs valued at over N1.5 trillion, according to figures Marwa presented at the National Drug Use Summit in Abuja in July. Just this week, the agency publicly destroyed 329,865.585 kilogrammes of narcotics worth an estimated N301 billion in Lagos, drawn from cases concluded in court and abandoned seizures accumulated between April 2025 and May 2026.
Cannabis dominates these figures. NDLEA’s 2025 Annual Report shows Kwara State Command alone accounted for over two million kilogrammes of seized cannabis, a volume analysts have linked to large scale farm destructions in the state’s forest belt rather than street level arrests. Under Nigerian law, cannabis remains a controlled substance under the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, and cultivation, possession or trafficking attract criminal penalties regardless of quantity or purpose.
Sowore’s call comes as a number of African countries have moved toward regulated cannabis regimes. Over the past decade, at least nine countries, including Lesotho, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Zambia, Uganda, Ghana, Morocco and Rwanda, have legalised cultivation for medicinal, industrial or export purposes, according to comparative reviews of African drug policy. Lesotho became the first, licensing medical cultivation in 2017, while South Africa’s Constitutional Court decriminalised private cultivation and personal use in 2018. None of these countries has legalised recreational cannabis outright, and researchers note that licensing costs in several jurisdictions have favoured large foreign investors over local farmers, limiting the benefits reaching rural growers. Nigeria has not adopted any such framework, and cannabis cultivation here remains prosecuted as a criminal offence, with produce routinely destroyed rather than diverted to a regulated market.
This is not the first time Sowore has taken a confrontational stance against security and law enforcement agencies; he has, in previous public commentary, been a persistent critic of government policy on civil liberties and economic management. The NDLEA has not responded publicly to his latest remarks, and there is no indication that the federal government is currently considering a review of Nigeria’s cannabis laws.