Vice President Yemi Osinbajo on Friday attended the premiere of “The Silent Baron,” a film directed by Mr. Ifeanyi Ukaeru and created in collaboration with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to raise awareness about the risks of drug misuse and trafficking in Nigeria.
The participation of Prof. Osinbajo at the film’s premiere was intended to show his support for the global fight against drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
Osinbajo was accompanied by the Executive Chairman of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd); the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, and other top government officials, according to a statement released by the Vice President’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, on Saturday.
The premiere is part of the celebrations commemorating the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking, which is observed every year on June 26th.
It was produced by Ekwe Nche Entertainment Ltd, the NDLEA, and other partners and depicted the internal issues of agencies fighting drug lords, as well as how couriers are recruited, by deceiving women and their parents with false promises of bringing the women abroad.
The film, which starred some of Nigeria’s top actors, depicted the duplicitous life of a young man named Anselm, who pretended to be a foreign-based professional who only visited Nigeria for short vacations and enticed young ladies with gifts, alluring words, and false pretenses as couriers for his illicit drug trafficking business. He was eventually apprehended.
The film highlights the NDLEA’s admirable role in the fight against drug trafficking, particularly at a time when the agency is aggressively exposing the threat with a large number of arrests in recent months.
After watching the movie, the Vice President met some of the actors who were also present at the premiere, interacted briefly and took group photographs with the actors, movie producers and the production crew.
