NDLEA sets to probe Davido over video
JULY 12, 2015 : LEKE BAIYEWU
Davido
Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency has set up a panel to investigate a music video released by Nigerian artiste, Davido, in which he displayed a substance suspected to be hard drugs.
The video of his track entitled, ‘Fans mi’, in which he featured an American rapper and member of the Maybach Group, Meek Mill, showed Davido with a briefcase filled with dollars and another bag filled with parcels of a substance suspected to be hard drugs.
The Director of Public Affairs of the NDLEA, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, told SUNDAY PUNCH on Saturday that the investigative panel might invite the hip-hop artiste for questioning if the need arose.
He said, “I am aware that a panel is working on it (the video). The panel was set up soon after the video was released few weeks ago.
“When our attention was drawn to it, we viewed it and we discovered that it was improper. There is no moral lesson in it and he was just advertising drug trafficking.
In the video, he exchanged a brief case supposedly containing narcotics for dollars. He was displaying affluence in the video. If it (the plot) had climaxed in an arrest and possible detention, we would have congratulated him for partnering with us. But the way he portrayed drug trafficking in the video was a means to an end, which the end is a life of affluence which we disagree with.Ofoyeju said the anti-drug agency would conduct a full-scale investigation into the making of the video and to confirm whether it was censored before its release.The NDLEA spokesperson further said, “We are looking at the issue holistically. We believe that there should be a body that was supposed to censor videos before they go out. Those are the things we want to investigate and verify. Was the video submitted for approval? If it was submitted, why was it approved, with such content?”NDLEA had in June 2013 said controversial Nigerian actress, Tonto Dikeh, risked a minimum of 15 years in jail for encouraging the consumption of hemp.Dikeh had on June 28, 2013, posted photographs of a wrap of hemp and grains of the weed formed into the letters, ‘Happy birthday POKO.’She also posted a photograph of herself and added the inscription, ‘Mi smoke ganja mi smoke weed while my hatez smoke ma gossip.’Her picture is a close-up of her face that seemed to depict her in a high state.As a result, the agency said it was keeping tabs on more celebrities in Nollywood and the music industry for drug trafficking, abuse and links with drug cartels.
