Operatives if the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has arrested a Canada-based nurse, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, and two businessmen, Ihejirika Okechukwu Emmanuel and Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, in Ikeja, Lagos.
The trio were in the process of smuggling cocaine pellets and parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, through the airport when they were nabbed.
Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, on Sunday said in a statement in Abuja that Ihejirika, a frequent traveler to Thailand, who claims to import fish into Nigeria, was arrested on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, while trying to board an Ethiopian Airlines flight to Thailand via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
A body scan gave him away as having ingested cocaine.
“As a result, he was placed under excretion observation during which he expelled five big egg size wraps of cocaine weighing 400 grams. In his statement, the 51-year-old suspect confessed that he was to be paid upon successful delivery of the drug consignment in Thailand. He said he needed the money to boost his fish importation business,” the statement read.
Similarly, the NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Thursday, October 17, arrested a 26-year-old businessman Iwuagwu Ikedi Victory, on his way from Brazil via Addis Ababa during the inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight.
Also, the suspect’s body scan revealed ingestion of illicit drugs and after putting him under observation, he excreted a pellet of cocaine weighing 22 grams.
“He, however, confessed that he ingested 30 wraps of the illicit drug in Brazil but excreted 29 pellets in Addis Ababa, where he handed them over to another person. The suspect revealed that he was to be paid N2.5 million for trafficking the drug,” the statement added.
Furthermore, Babafemi disclosed that the Nigerian-Canadian nurse, Usman Grace Khadijat Olami, was arrested by NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport on October 4, during the inward clearance of Air France passengers from Toronto, Canada via Paris.
According to him, a total of 70 parcels of Canadian Loud, weighing 35.70kg were recovered from her during a search of her luggage.
According to the statement, the nurse claimed that she was in Nigeria to meet her boyfriend, who instructed her to come with the large consignment of the highly sought-after synthetic cannabis.
“At the seaports, while a total of 162,351 bottles of codeine-based syrup were intercepted from two containers at the Apapa seaport in Lagos by NDLEA operatives during a joint examination of two containers with men of the Customs Service and other security agencies on Tuesday 15th October, not less than Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand (7,200,000) pills of Royal 225mg Tapentadol and Carisoprodol worth Three Billion Six Hundred Million Naira (N3,600,000,000) in street value were seized from a watch-listed container from India at Port Harcourt Port Complex, Onne, Rivers state on Tuesday 15th October,” the statement added:
“In the same container, 780 cartons of chlorphenamine containing Fifteen Million Six Hundred Thousand (15,600,000) pills of the opioid, were also recovered. From two other watch-listed containers equally searched at the port in Onne, a total of 337,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth two billion three hundred and fifty-nine million naira (N2,359,000,000) were recovered from them on Tuesday 15th and Thursday 17th October. This brings the total value of the seized Tapentadol, Carisoprodol, and Codeine consignments at the two seaports to Seven Billion Ninety-Five Million Four Hundred and Fifty-Seven Thousand Naira (N7,095,457,000).
“In Bauchi state, a suspect Sunday Jonathan Ogenyi, 33, was arrested along Bauchi-Jos road with 76,600 pills of tramadol concealed in false compartments of his Toyota Sienna vehicle marked Enugu JRV 341 ZY, while NDLEA operatives in Ondo state on Tuesday 15th October arrested three suspects: Goddey Obizuo; Samuel Aniete; and Kuffrey Aniete at Afo village where 672kg cannabis sativa was seized from them.
“A raid at Illushi forest in Esan South East LGA, Edo state led to the destruction of 10,590.36kg cannabis spread on 4.236144 hectares of farmland. Suspects arrested during the operation include Benson Upuoni, 65; and Sunday Nwaeboyi, 35.
“In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday 15th October arrested Andrew Joseph Anoriode with 3kg methamphetamine and 1.90kg cannabis along Lagos – Ibadan expressway while 241kg of same substance was recovered at Gbaji, Badagry area of the state. A suspected meth cook, Agbeiboh Oscar, was nabbed the same Tuesday at Abule Osun with 265 grams of methamphetamine and different quantities of precursor chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine and others.
“With the same vigour, Commands, and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitisation activities to schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities among others in the past week. These include: WADA enlightenment lecture to students and staff of Ansarudeen Senior High School, Saki, Oyo State; Government Secondary School, Hayin Gwarmai, Bebeji LGA, Kano; Margaret Ekpo Secondary School, Calabar, Cross River; Agbaju Unuhu Community Secondary School, Abakaliki, Ebonyi; and WADA advocacy visit to the Emir of Lafiagi, Alhaji Muhammad Kawu Kudu, Kwara state, among others.
“While commending the officers and men of MMIA, PHPC, Apapa, Lagos, Bauchi, Ondo, and Edo Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts are well appreciated.”