- Luxury vehicles seized by the NDLEA from drug traffickers are deteriorating at anti-narcotics facilities, with some vandalized
- NDLEA froze 600 accounts and confiscated 249 luxury cars as part of assets forfeited by drug barons from January 2021 to August 2022
Exotic vehicles seized from suspected drug traffickers by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and valued in the billions of naira are currently rotting away at various anti-narcotics facilities across the country.
Seized vehicles litter the frontage of the agency’s premises in the Ibereko area of Badagry. Residents claimed that some of the vehicles were vandalized with the assistance of police officers.
NDLEA froze about 600 accounts and impounded over 249 luxury cars of drug barons between January 2021 and August 2022, according to WITHIN NIGERIA.
According to NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, the drug barons’ forfeited assets included 249 exotic cars and 37 properties scattered across the country.
Babafemi stated that the agency faced an overwhelming task of drug control in a country with a 14.4% prevalence of drug use.
Babafemi stated that the agency confiscated 286 assets and frozen 600 bank accounts in the last 20 months.
The frontage of the NDLEA facility at Ibereko was completely blocked at the time of this report by a heap of seized vehicles, many of which are now mere scraps.
In a phone interview, Babafemi stated that the vehicles were to be auctioned but were moved out of the compound due to ongoing construction work.
You asked about the current state of the vehicles, and I said they are up for auction,” he explained. Because of the ongoing construction, they were relocated from the compound to where they are now parked.
Babajide Alani, who owns a small business in the area, questioned why the NDLEA would let seized vehicles rot instead of auctioning them and earning revenue for the government.
Mr Godwin Okafor of Godwin Udunwa & Company Ltd, an auctioneer, said the NDLEA authorities had begun auctioning off the vehicles.
Okafor, who spoke to our correspondent by phone, said the committee in charge had completed their work in Ogun State and was now in Kaduna State, on their way to Lagos.
I know they’ve started to auction,” he said. They are selling to their employees before beginning the auction of the seized vehicles.