NDLEA intercepts 3-trailer-loads of opioids, codeine bottles, arrests suspects in Lagos
The multi-billion-naira consignments comprised three million, four hundred and fifty thousand pills and three hundred and forty-four thousand bottles of codeine syrup.
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media & Advocacy at NDLEA, disclosed that the haul was loaded into two 40-foot container trucks and another 20-foot truck at the AML bonded terminal in Abule-Osun, near the International Trade Fair complex while being conveyed to a large warehouse in Abule-Ado.
Operatives of the anti-narcotics agency also arrested three suspects in connection with the discovery on Thursday, May 8.
Those arrested include the warehouse agent, Cosmas Obiajulu, 51; Ridwan Balogun, 25, and Banjo Tayo, 30, both drivers of two of the trucks, while the third driver managed to escape.
Similarly, the NDLEA operatives arrested one Nwankwo Ejike, another suspect, on May 7, in the Coker area of Lagos from whom 100 litres of codeine syrup were recovered.
Also, 60 litres of the same substance were seized from Clinton Akinye in the same area the same day.
Additionally on May 6, about 37.5kg of cannabis sativa loaded in a Toyota Camry car was recovered from one 47-yesr-old suspect, when the car was intercepted in the Mile 12 area of Lagos.
Another consignment of opioids consisting of 59,106 pills of tramadol and different quantities of codeine syrup and Rohypnol being taken across the border to Garua, Cameroon, was intercepted by NDLEA officers on Monday, May 6th, along Mubi-Yola Road, Adamawa State. Two suspects linked to the drugs, Abubakar Auwal, 39, and Adamu Abubakar, 25, (a.k.a. Bamanga), a trans-border trafficker who was to take the consignment from Mubi across to Cameroon, were promptly arrested.
In Edo State, NDLEA operatives raided the Iguiye forest in Ovia North East LGA on Saturday, May 11th. A total of 11,636.185 kg of cannabis was destroyed on three farms measuring 4.654474 hectares, while an additional 188kg of the same psychoactive substance was recovered, and a suspect, Itah Nyong, was arrested during the overnight operation.
A 75-year-old grandpa, Jibril Audu, was arrested on May 10th with 7.5 kilogrammes of cannabis at Oke-asa village, Ijero-Ekiti, Ekiti State, during a raid operation, while a 70-year-old grandma, Tikwase Nytor, was nabbed with 15.6 kilogrammes of the same substance on May 9th during a raid operation at Achusa and International Market Road, Makurdi, Benue State.
The NDLEA Commands across the country balanced their drug supply reduction operations with War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy campaigns in schools, markets, worship centres, and communities. Some of these include WADA sensitization lecture to Muslim faithful at Sultan Bello Jummat Mosque, Kaduna; students of Oduduwa University and Oduduwa Polytechnic, Ipetumodu, Osun; students of Nigerian Tulip International Colleges (Boys Section), Kano; students of Federal University of Technology, Babura, Jigawa; students of Father Tansi International College, Okpuno Awka, Anambra; WADA advocacy visit to Delta State First Lady Deaconess Tobore Oborevwori; and similar advocacy visit to the Founder City of God cathedral, Cardinal James Omolaja Odunmbaku, who was joined by Ojodu LCDA Chairman, Hon. Segun Odunmbaku, in the Ojodu area of Lagos state.
Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, commended the efforts of the the operatives and assured that officers and men of the Agency would continue to work with local and international partners to ensure that the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking is brought to the barest minimum in Nigeria.
