 Interesting with us now according to World Drug Report 2019, in 2017 an estimated 271 million people or 5.5% of the global population aged between 15 and 64 had used drugs in the previous year. While this is similar to the estimated 2016, a longer term view reveals that the number of people who use drugs is now 30% higher than it was in 2009. Now speaking at the venue of the public destruction of confiscated drugs, Marwa, who was presented or represented by the agency's director of prosecution and legal services, deputy commander general of narcotics, Sunday Joseph, said the sheer volume of the drug hall with street value of $278 million, $250,000, equivalent to $194 billion, $775 million, Naira speaks volumes about the extent of nefarious activities of drugs worldwide. Now the director said out of the 1.8 ton seizure, 1.828 blocks of cocaine will be crushed and set ablaze while the remandant will be secured for purpose of prosecution of the suspects who were brought to witness the procedure and sign the certificate of destruction. So what are your thoughts on this destruction, the NDLE's destruction of the $194.7 billion worth of cocaine? Everybody is so heavy. This guy is easy to call out. I'm not in this much zeroes. You lost my generations before me and after thinking once. Let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp. This is an interesting conversation because I took the story yesterday of the burning of the evidence. And I said that I don't understand. For me, I was just speaking as a common man. And this is what people are saying that cocaine has been known to be used as medicine. Cocaine also, of course, has had drugs, but it's not something you can just... And because they take it in the purest form, they use it. It's not something that you can just have, just like that. So I was now wondering when the government decided to say that, because in his words he said it was not valuable to them. It has no economic value. It was not bringing any value for them. There was no economic value and all of that. And I was now wondering, so why the destruction? And remember we talked about this yesterday that it was so done in a hurry. Because this thing just happened last. I mean, we've never seen cases this fast. So somebody sent me a message on WhatsApp yesterday saying, you know, that... Let me try to pull it out. Right? In the meantime. No, let me just pull it out because I want us to be able to have an informed conversation. It says the drug dealers are ruthless and can come for recovery. It says best was to swap with the US and sort pressing ASU issues. It was saying you'd have swapped it and solved pressing ASU issues or sought some medical issues. And when I spoke with the NDLE spokesperson this morning, I mean, this evening, he kept on saying that, you know what, people don't understand this thing. People just make a lot of assumptions. So I want to hear your assumptions first and then I'll come back to what he said. Let me come with you, Lydie. My assumption is that first of all, I have never seen any country, according to the movies we watch, about drug trafficking, drug consumption. I've never seen any government destroy evidence. It could be in their storage, their warehouse, whatever it is for, up to 30 decades. They would tell you that they are doing forensic tests, that by testing it, they know the country that probably produced the cocaine in particular. That is how detailed the FBI and COA are when it comes to evidence. They can trace which particular country created this, that shipment came from, in which case they could have given them back their cocaine, in exchange for money if the government wanted to, and used it for medicine on a global scale by UNICEF or whoever else, who or whatever can influence. Nobody that I know by watching movies destroys evidence. As I said yesterday, I believe they're covering tracks for somebody, or they're going to claim a particular amount, and they put it back in the market for their balance to sell. But we never know, Nigeria doesn't have a, what do they call it? Morenzex? No, no, no, this is clear. Transparency? Transparency. So we can only be left to... So I guess I like where you're coming from around transparency, because I think this is where the big issue is. I think it's the lack of trust for government. Yes. That has even given room for Nigerians to question the burning of this evidence. But let me hear your thoughts, Loretta, in our combat. So I'm also going to be speaking like... Elayman. Elayman, yes, Elayman. Come on, you two understand. I also had doubts with how fast this whole burning occurred. So I felt like, yes, I know what, from what they said, they've kept some samples, they're going to use as evidence. But I had to read some of these write-ups, even in the past from other nations. So from what I read, whenever this happens and some drug loads are caught, and it's kept until the case is closed, before any action is taken. Anything could be done about it. And also, from Elayman's point, I don't know, I also feel like even the method of disposal too... It should not be in the bush like that, like they did it. It should not be like that. They put it in an incinerator or something. Yes, in an incinerator. So is that even... Is that healthy just disposing it like that? And even the people that were disposing, some of them had no gloves, even though they were trying. So I had concerns with that. But I'm like, okay, I don't know. Maybe let me not speak the voices. But I feel like, for me, it's not... There's something off about it. Let me read... Okay. Let me read Femi Baba Femi's tweet. Comments about it. Okay. It says, fake news a lot on NDLE cocaine bust claims and insinuations that NDLE has destroyed all drug exhibits recovered from the CO2 warehouse are false and misleading. Our statement on the public destruction clearly states that the order to destroy was issued by the Federal High Court in Lagos. The statement further states that a portion of the drug seizure is secured for the purpose of persecuting the suspects in court as part of transparency in line with legal procedures and the suspects were taken to many of the public destruction to witness the quantity destroyed and signed a certificate of destruction. In fact, 27.5 kilograms of cocaine has been secured for the purpose of persecuting those... Of persecution rather. Those making unfounded claims obviously didn't read our earlier statement or doing this out of mischief. Please disregard every false claim. Okay. This is Femi Baba Femi. This is Femi Baba Femi. Please let me react. So hold on. Let me finish. So I then asked my producer to help me send because from what it is, what I believe that should be done everywhere in the world, right? All countries stated that drug exhibition would only be disposed on the conclusion of one case. And they said something. They said this case is different. They said this is how they do it. But this case is different. How is it different? When you've already disposed it within days. Committees consisting of public prosecutors or police, right? Officers and stakeholders are established to monitor this disposal of the drug in some jurisdiction. Some of the countries may need approval from specific authorities such as enforcement agencies, environmental bodies and other health officials beforehand. Because that's what you said. That open burning thing. Burning. It's not proper. It's just like, you know thought party smoking is worse. Yes. Yes, of course. So they're polluting the air, right? So beforehand, you'd have other health officials, right? Beforehand, the common method used to dispose drugs is burning in incinerators. Incinerators, yes. By appointed and competent enforcement agencies. With protective care. They said that methods of disposal vary from country as in some countries, burning is carried out in open spaces and in one country, it is carried out in the presence of public. For some countries, some drugs are not being destroyed but are used for medical treatment as well as scientific study research. Oh, please, may I react? Me as like they are open. I as like they are open. How I won't take no. What 194 billion Naira cocaine looks like? So even if you call the public and you were burning it, how do I know what it really looks like? Then again, it shouldn't be their case alone. It came from somewhere. If you find out the country, the country that it came from should be part of the investigation. Do you understand what I mean? The cocaine came from somewhere. It came from citizens of a particular country. The country too has a right to know who the people are. It's like sending a bomber who were diaper on the plane. You said who influenced him. You said the country of birth. You said everything. Why can't we know where the country that this thing came from involve their government? Because they must have been carrying out investigations and then together you decide what would be done not destroyed before anybody else has been contacted. Do you know the painful thing about it? After a while, we will not hear about this case again. Of course. Okay, on that note, we shall move on in the break. We won't cover that for you. I really want to hear your thoughts. I want to hear what you are saying about this cocaine destruction. Stay with us, we'll be right back. Alright, thanks for staying with us now. If you're just tuned in, it's our ladies night out and we're discussing this destruction of the 194.7 billion worth of cocaine. Now, please let's hear what you have to say. Remember, you can join the conversation, send us an SMS or WhatsApp to 08-1-803-4663. You can also tweet at us at Weissho, Africa one with the hashtag Weissho. Now our phone line is now open. Remember the rule, turn off the volume of your television set or whatever it is they are watching from and the number to call is 07025-007749. That's the number to call. So before we went on a break, right? So I need our government, right? So I don't like when you come out with blanket conversations to say your allegations or your assumptions are unfounded and all of that because what they said is absolutely true. I don't know what 194 billion worth of cocaine looks like. I don't know what you burnt. I don't know what you burnt. And I don't even know if it's cocaine that was inside what you burnt. Do you know what I'm saying? So it is because over the years there has been so much what's it called distrust in the part of government that it is so difficult that even when they are seen to be doing something right we still question it. Now there was a meth lab that was called uncovered in VGC. Have you heard anything since then? Did anything happen to the meth that was recovered from that VGC lab? They didn't burn that one. It wasn't destroyed. Do you understand? Why this one? So why this particular consignment? Now there was something again like they mentioned. The other consignment? Transactions like this is an opportunity because drug cartels in the world, everywhere in the world is a massive business, right? There are some countries that they look forward to receiving these kinds of consignments because guess what? If you pass through their borders, they get a commission on it. So this consignment came from somewhere. If it was traced to originally from their merit, we should go back to them. You didn't bring five suspects for $194 billion worth of cocaine. You bring five suspects and you say amongst them is a Jamaican. It's not possible. So tell us how can the government convince us as Nigerians that this is not a fraudulent act or they are not trying to cover somebody's track or there was no such thing as $194 billion worth of cocaine. There is no drug trafficking business on a small scale that does not involve five to twenty people. There is a connect. According to what I heard in the program Power, there is someone that is a connect. There are the people that are manufacturing units. There are the people that bring it into your country. There are the people that distribute it into different areas. And then there are the street soldiers. You cannot just hold five people and claim case closed. Mr. Femi, Papa Femi is it. NDLEA, friend of the house, former guest. I would like to say to you, challenge yourself that when you say we cannot just say, oh, something was done that wasn't what. Nothing is clear about what has happened. We have questions. We may be able to bring you next week but we will come with a fight of questions that you need to answer because we're not donuts. There is no way a representative of the Nigerian government, parasitical or what have you, could tell someone like me that that was 195 billion worth of cocaine or that that was even actually cocaine and that the people burning it had a business to be there in the first place. Let's take a call. Yes, please. Our first caller for the evening. Thank you so much, Loma, from Abia State. Good evening, my beautiful sister in the house. Good evening, Loma. My name is Loma from Abia State. Thank you for calling. I was also listening to you and our sister here in the middle. Say, let me go tell us what you people are saying is true. But to me, I don't think that these people are saying in their fight for these illicit drugs because sometimes they can use hatred for somebody's products and co-opt it, it looks as if it is a drug and they will both destroy the property. So what I'm just saying is that 190 something billion is not a small amount of money and it's not a small amount of business. So if they are telling us that they have really arrested people, let us know them and let it be in chains. And let them tell us. Let it be in chains so that at the end of the day we will know those people that from the class, from the top, from the bottom to the top, let us know this person who initiated it, the people that are in it. Otherwise, at the end of the day, otherwise at the end of the day, they will continue distributing us, destroying the property of the people in their heads. So let them show us how these people were caught. Thank you very much. Thank you. As Fela said, I said, turn your face small to the right. We all got part of our day for it. What I want to bring out about that is that the people you have caught, let us have independent bodies, not even Nigerians. Interview them, and let them start naming the chain from the beginning to yoga patak pata. Because, you know, let me say something, right? It's like, I don't know, but I think I'm the only one worried about this much quantity of cocaine, right? How can you be the only one worried? No! Yes. Because I don't understand that how you were so much in a hurry. I would have... Yes, so I get that part of security because let me tell you something. Drug cartels all over the world are dangerous. They come with guns and they come with... So give them the guns. No, the other day at Kogi, where they went to, was it because what state they bossed the prison, Kujie prison, and released Boko Haram, what's it called? So it is, I get the fear that they don't even have the security capacity to secure this much quantity of cocaine. But they have the guts to burn it. But wait! So it's better they burn it. I get that part. I am trying to understand it from both ends. But what is more alarming for me is that this thing is so worrisome that the ease and the speed, I would have thought there would have been some level of detailing in terms of what's it called? How they handled the cocaine. As a civilian. Ha! Let me take another call. Before you take the call. Iori please, we can't hold our call. Thank you for calling. Iori from Gombe. Go ahead. Good evening ladies. Good evening. Good evening. Well my state on this issue is that currently Nigeria is facing money issues. As a result, right, they are asking for how much. And we have won over 98 billion Naira cocaine. Your man doesn't even make sense. We are the legal advisors in this country. That is look for countries where cocaine is laid down and sell this thing to them. Let's have full money to develop our country. The money would have something else to spend. This money can even solve their problems. Yes. This is all bombing everything. Sadly they grant it. You don't know. Go ahead. This country. Naira. You know because... I just might take on the issue. Thank you Iori. Naira. You know. So I was going to say that because see even if cocaine in itself is an illegal drug, cocaine is a medical element. It's working for medical drugs. And the fact they say it has no economic value. What does that even mean? What does that mean? That was worth mentioning. The point I was trying to make before the cocaine. They say they don't have the security for whatever drug buyers are useless. Imagine myself, civilian, some robbers, now drug barons, looted somewhere and then threw the money over my fence. They took notice of my fence, Nigeria, that they threw it in. And then I say, ah, I don't know who gave money. I'm afraid to. You both. And then I go and burn the money. They're still coming for you. Because I don't have the security to protect myself. They'll still come for you now. They'll come for you. They'll come for you. Yes. Why the two of you? The security that I have, that I had came from courage to burn the money. Burn it. Exactly. That's their excuse of they burn it because they don't have security. When they come, knowing that you are the one that burns it, who is going to save you? Who are you going to call? So now how to bring another angle. Please do. Do you believe that the five suspects that they have mentioned that these are the people that are linked to that 194 billion watts of cocaine. Do you believe that those people are the real people? Of course not. Why? They will show them they will disappear. Maybe they came from chat or they came from meeting. Do you know, we are talking about did you see the video? It cannot just be five people now. Like anybody. Even for that point. Even for that point. For that point. Look at their mouth. That's actually not their mouth. 194 billion in dollars is how much. There's no way a transaction like that would come and other countries would not be involved. There's no way a transaction like that would come. And you did not ask FBI, CIA for advice. You went to burn it. Fire burn you. It's not because of fire. Burn. Okay so. So I mean, let's try to bring this back home. We can bring it to the bones. It is burnt to one. They forbid it as burnt or free. To save ourselves. Money they could have exchanged for the people in the medical sector globally that need cocaine. You're not bringing it for people to use it individually. And use the money to sort out asso, health issues, road issues. They say there's no economy. They do it to tell you to burn and sell the cocaine. Do you understand? I get you. Calm down. Okay let me drink some water. So I was going to say that what would have been the best approach? Because again, and this is why, I mean 2023 is around the corner and there's a lot of propaganda happening all over the place. And this is why when we we throw certain questions at our leadership, right? We're throwing those questions not because we just want to antagonize you as a leader. But we want you to be able to give us some level of comfort that we can bank on you that we can trust you. Right? So what would have been the best approach to this? Because again, do not forget, ESCC goes to bust oh shoot, we have another caller, sorry. Abuja, you're live. DK from Abuja, thank you for calling. I won't give my care. Go ahead. Thank you very much. I want to make my contribution. Go ahead please. Yeah, you see sometimes we will deceive ourselves. Huh? Let me tell you, there's some, this thing is being legalized to some pharmacies. Hello? Go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, they give some pharmacies the license to deal on these things. I think that young government should have sold these two, those pharmacies and make some money. Hmm. And for them to write out some things like this and say they're burnt. Do you know that this thing they use to produce bread, you can pack one kilo of it and use seletapes and seletapes compress it to the ultimatum of one kilo. That's the one, this one kilo you're hearing. Which is being sold at 14,500,000. Jesus. Jesus. In Nigeria today. Yes. One kilo. One bag of this thing you're seeing. Why should that water something like this and say that they have burnt it? Why some countries are making money with it? The poorest country in Africa here is Guinea-Bissau and their present was the richest in Africa because of this business. Hmm. So let's not bring this that's my contribution. Thank you man. Ah, but blessed DK you understand the business well. You see, you see the complex of this kind of bread that one kilo. It's 14,000,000. 14,000,000. I know you won't listen because that billion still they give my my forefathers 14,000,000. 14,000,000. Do you understand? And the pharmacists need it. Yes. So you could not have said. So I want the federal government to really come out for once. I don't explain in an open panic. Yes, for once because I need you to justify this to me. Let me go back to the statement. In an open panic. I took yesterday the statements from the NDLEA boss. Right. When he was talking about why they burnt down this hundred and ninety-four billion worth of the case. You want to hear that man? He said he argued that although a small portion of the substance was retained by the court for evidence, the majority was set ablaze because the government could not find any other legal use for it. Inside the story of this conversation, he said that it did not have any economic value. That one. That one. How? Please, there are medical doctors that are licensed to travel with cocaine. We citizens don't find any legal use for use, sir. I mean it. The person that made that statement NDLEA, whoever it is, we do not have legal use for you because if you haven't investigated well, the uses of cocaine, the exchange, the market, the law, involvement, I personally as a citizen of Nigeria do not have legal use for you on that seat. Let me take Suleiman from Bauchi. I'm annoyed. You're alive. Hello. Yes, go ahead. Yes, please. I want to I want to discuss a bit by contribution to what you have discussed. Go ahead. So, I want those to be careful when we are discussing this issue. Before this drug, something that I see, the information was supplied by the American Drug Agency to the Nigeria NDLEA and they have been working since 2018. Nigeria is a Korea country not a drug-consuming country. Not a source for production or even... Not a drug country. Go ahead. Not a drug-consuming country. Not a drug-consuming country. Not a drug-consuming country. Not a drug-consuming country. You don't you don't use a procedure of crime to or any drug or to destroy it. Okay. The people that were included in the place that the drug was destroyed. We have a American agency. So they have been working with NDLEA. We should trust our government please. Okay. Thank you so much. We should trust our government. I like what you're saying today, man. So I like what you're saying. We will trust our government. In the future. And yes, these drugs were monitored. It was not one overnight thing. They have been monitoring just like the Yes. Just like the meth lab in VGC they had monitored for a while before they finally got a hold of this. So I hear Suleiman saying that Nigeria is just a transit country. But I beg to differ. If you go and check the numbers of drug consumers within Nigeria, even the NDLEA will tell you his alarming. He doesn't think he meant it as in the past. No, he said we're not a consuming country. But I beg to differ. We consume. We consume. On the top to the bottom. We consume. Yes, we might be a Korea company, a country, but we consume drugs in this country because if you go and check the numbers, it is alarming the number of people involved in illicit drugs these days. But let's take a look at the comments. I am calling for myself. Your network is funny today. Your network is funny? Yeah. This is from Bobby Kennedy. He says the burning of cocaine worth 194 billion NDALEA. This is a class A drug that was confiscated and should be an evidence material in evidential law under the criminal law in any criminal proceeding. If you look at law of evidence in any criminal proceedings, that's the core requirement. You don't burn, destroy an evidence until the entire case is concluded including any potential appeals proceedings. The drugs are criminal evidence and should be preserved at a secure location. Only a court can order for destruction of this crime. So for me, this is a minus for NDALEA. The damage controlled by their image makers raises questions on the alleged suspicion. So the thing is we are commanding them but beyond commendation, right? So the reason we are even discussing this, I believe that Nigeria's until we start to probe more, ask questions, we won't solve problems. So this is not a situation on alleged suspicion. Who went to court to obtain the said order seeking for the horrid destruction? Have they been able to conclude investigation? Have they successfully arranged and prosecuted the suspect before destroying the evidence? I have covered court procedures in the past. Courts needed to inspect it. Come on, please, tell it to the Marines, stop fooling them. You have messed up the job. It is fishy. Oh, please, tell us the big man you are protecting. This is some Austin project. So this is the question. I acknowledge you two personalities. M. Jones says why they have to destroy evidence and who are they protecting? It's probably a government of official involved in this drug business. I N.T. L.E.A. and now James Bond. 006.5 at this point. They are giving Nigerians film trick. These drugs were not burnt. They are doing cover-up for a big cartel involved in this case. Let's invite FBI, Israel and America drugs experts to investigate the case. The drug is for elections, Israel, America and FBI. Let them come and put two cents, two dollars, two P and two yen inside it and tell us what they would have done differently. Thank you very much. So they had a judge. Someone says they had a judge at the seat of the burning. So it's not about having the judge. So I don't want us to argue. What you did was not good. We have done hurriedly. So this is why it's raising a lot of dust. Who are you protecting? Or was there even anything called drugs in the first place? In the first place. Or you are just trying to make it look like you are doing a job. We don't know who did what's wrong. All we're saying is you are not doing well. Bottom line. Bottom line. But hey, ladies, we had a fantastic conversation. I did. We are just saying to our own government official. My own is that when we want to do something, let us do it well. Drug is not something to joke with. Drug is a major thing for you to bust this kind of quantity of drug. That is, they should be celebrating and not raising dust. So that's why we need clarity and integrity when handling things like this. That's all we're asking. So thank you so much, ladies. Thank you, Lidy. Thank you, because I think Nigerians are actually asking the right question. Yes. But we have to thank you for your participation. Nigerians, we're not used to people questioning leadership. Yes. And that's why somebody might feel like we are attacking a leader. No. We're not attacking. Just answer the questions and tell us what you did right and where you made wrong. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you, ladies. Thank you so much. Yes, we did. We did. All right. So before we go and show you follow us on Instagram at Washiw Africa TikTok, YouTube, everywhere at Washiw Africa, you can interact with us further. Drop a comment and more importantly, follow all our engagement on social media like, share, invite your families and friends to watch and follow the conversation. Now, this quote is very interesting. The findings of this year's World Drug Report fill in a broader international cooperation to advance balanced and integrated health and criminal justice response to supply and demand. So what we are asking for is absolutely collaborate with more transparent countries. Collaborate with those countries that in the country with cocaine, some countries they just hang you immediately. I think it's collaborate with China. Those Asian countries. Vietnam. Yes. You are dead. So collaborate with those countries that have integrity, that have proven to have integrity over the years. I have a better experience and I let them advise on how we do these things. 194 billion water cooking. I'm still in shock. You didn't shake me. All right, we'll see you guys at 8 p.m. to bring a great conversation to your screen. Shake me on my generations.