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By Emma Njoku and Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a drug kingpin, Obiorah Chigozie Samuel, over attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom.
NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who made the disclosure in a statement, yesterday, said its operatives also seized four tons of illicit substances in the past week.
He said Samuel has been on the wanted list of the agency since September 15, 2023, when a consignment of 1.500kg skunk concealed in flour going to London, UK, was intercepted at the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, and his freight agent, Nworah Adaugo Precious, arrested.
“Convinced that the 1.500kg consignment had sailed through, Obiorah walked into the agency’s dragnet last Thursday, when he personally brought another tranche of 2.00kg concealed in cartons to the airport for shipment to the UK. In his interview, Obiorah claimed he was into shoe sales in Lagos before venturing into the illicit drug business,” Babafemi stated.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the agency, last Friday, intercepted a container truck with registration number BD G41 XM, coming from Lagos to Kano, at the Gwagwalada area of the FCT. No less than 1,188 kilograms of skunk loaded at Owo, Ondo State and hidden under cartons of toothpaste were recovered from the truck and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, was arrested.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers in Bayelsa State, last Wednesday, seized 432kgs of the same substance from an abandoned J5 bus, along Saipem road, Opolo, Yenagoa. The vehicle was equally recovered from the scene for further investigation.
In Kano, a septuagenarian grandpa, Ado Mai Unguwa, 70, was arrested last Saturday, with 143.2kgs skunk in Dindere village, Tofa LGA, while operatives in Enugu, same day, recovered 110.6kgs of same substance from a locked-up shop at Aria new market.
Operatives in Lagos, also, last Saturday, stormed the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin, where they seized 212.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug lord.
Also, NDLEA officers in Kwara State recovered 104kgs of skunk from a Toyota Camry car in the Offa area of the state, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was nabbed at Mafa check point, Borno State, with 11.8kgs of same substance on last Monday.
In Plateau, the state police command, in the spirit of inter-agency collaboration, transferred four suspects: Yusuf Akim; Frank Gah; Jackson Ejeh and Joseph Utsu, and 1,978kgs cannabis recovered from them to the state command of NDLEA, while in Cross River, operatives last Monday, seized 40,000 ampules of pentazocine injection from two suspects: Fajulugbe Adeshola Temitayo, 35, and Nnaorji Agwe Solomon, 54, at Mobil by MCC road, Calabar.
Also in Kogi State, NDLEA officers, last Wednesday, arrested a suspect, Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, with 59,867 pills of opioids, including tramadol and 4.03kgs cannabis sativa at the Idah area of the state.
War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy activities equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA advocacy visit to the Director/CEO, Nigeria French Village, Badagry, Lagos, Prof. Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru, by the Seme Special Area command of NDLEA; WADA sensitisation lecture at Ar-Rahmania College of Health Sciences, Minna, Niger State; WADA advocacy lecture at Pentecostal Academy, Aba, Abia State, and WADA sensitisation lecture for students and staff of School of Nursing, Eket, Akwa Ibom State, among others.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, FCT, Bayelsa, Borno, Kogi, Kwara, Cross River, Borno and Enugu Commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country, for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
