12th March, 2023
At the Lagos airport in Ikeja, operatives of NDLEA acting on intelligence intercepted a consignment of 11.90 kilograms of heroin and 500 grams of skunk concealed in deep freezers.
The consignment was part of a cargo that arrived from South Africa on Tuesday 7th March onboard an Ethiopian airline via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Agency’s sniffer dogs were deployed to locate where the illicit drugs were hidden in the cargo and in no time, they identified the cartons packed in the deep freezers.
A total of four suspects that played active roles in the movement of the drugs and a truck driver have been arrested so far in connection with the seizure.
Those arrested include Dairo Quam; Oluwaseun Ogunmene; Adeleke Abdulrasaq; Bamidele Adewale and Oluwafemi Ogunmeru.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to the Gate C departure hall of the MMIA on Thursday 9th March intercepted a passenger, Aigbedion Philomena heading to Italy via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airline flight. When her bags containing body cream, hair attachments, drinks, and some food items were searched, a total of 1.20kg tramadol capsules concealed inside a gift wrapping sheets and covered with old daily newspapers were discovered.
At the Idiroko land border, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence on Thursday 9th March also intercepted a commercial Toyota Camry Salon Car with reg. number JJJ 756 HB (Lagos) along Ilase-Akoko road, Idiroko with 34 compressed jumbo-size wraps of imported skunk weighing 17kg and concealed in two cooking gas cylinders. Two suspects in the car, Benjamin Ajose, 48 and Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, 37, were arrested.
In Akwa Ibom state, Mrs. Hope Iniobong David, 42, was arrested with bags of cannabis sativa weighing 1,112kg (1.1 tons) in her house at Ediene Abak in Abak LGA, while operatives in Kogi state on Thursday 9th March recovered 25 cartons, containing 50,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 200kg in a Toyota Hiace bus marked LAM 652 LG, Kogi, traveling from Lagos to Abuja.
Also, in Ogun state, operatives arrested a female drug dealer, Bola Egbebi in Ota LGA, with different quantities of Cannabis Sativa, Methamphetamine, Tramadol 225, Skuchies, Molly, and Codeine cough syrup, while in Gombe state, another female drug dealer, Fatima Hassan (a.k.a Boss) was arrested on Saturday 11th March in her house at New Mile 3 area of Akko LGA with three and half blocks of skunk weighing 3.245kg. Two other female drug dealers: Folake Ladipo and Adeola Babatunde were arrested with 49.5kg skunk on Friday 10th March in Mushin area of Lagos state.
In Kwara, operatives on patrol along Ilorin-Jebba highway on Tuesday 7th March arrested two suspects: Ismaila Saidu and Dahiru Abdullahi with 50 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 578 kilograms, while in the FCT Abuja, 15 suspects were transferred by the Nigerian Army with 35 bags of cannabis weighing 384.3kg.
A 56-year-old suspect, Shinayemà Kelenku was arrested at Tse-kelenku village, Logo LGA, Benue with 36.7kg skunk, while in Delta state, operatives intercepted a suspect, Chimeze Ndukaire, 56, conveying psychotropic substances worth over N30 million in a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number Lagos FST 279 XS coming from Onitsha to Warri. The vehicle was intercepted on Friday 10th March at G.S.M junction, Asaba based on a tip-off.
Recovered from the bus include 267.3 litres of codeine (2,673 bottles); 25,110 pills of tramadol and other opioids.
In Kano state, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 11th March raided the Sabon-gari area of Kano where they arrested a suspect, Chukwuebuka Christopher and recovered from him 7,740 bottles of Codeine based syrup, measuring 774 litres, concealed inside 43 sacks of garlic.
Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), however, commended the officers, men and women of MMIA, Idiroko, Edo, Kaduna, Akwa Ibom, Kogi, Ogun, Gombe, Lagos, Kwara, FCT, Benue, Delta and Kano Commands of the Agency for their diligence and commitment to work.
He charged them and their compatriots across other commands not to rest on their oars.