A drug kingpin wanted for attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom tops the list of arrests made by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) through interdiction operations that led to the seizure of four tons of illicit substances in the past one week.
A statement signed by the NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, a copy of which was sent to LEADERSHIP, said Obiorah Chigozie Samuel had been on the wanted list of the anti-narcotics 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 Mohammed 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 on Thursday 28th September 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 on Friday, September 29, 2023 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 tooth paste were recovered from the truck and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, arrested.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers in Bayelsa State on Wednesday, September 27, seized 432kgs of the same substance from an abandoned J5 bus along Saipem Road, Opolo, Yenagoa, the state capital.
Babafemi said the vehicle was equally recovered from the scene for further investigation.
Hd added that in Kano State, a septuagenarian grandpa, Ado Mai Unguwa, 70, was arrested on Saturday, September 30, with 143.2kgs skunk in Dindere village, Tofa LGA of the state, while operatives in Enugu State on same day recovered 110.6kgs of same substance from a locked-up shop at Aria new market.
Also, operatives in Lagos State also on Saturday, September 30, raided the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin area of the State, where they seized 212.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug lord. This is even as NDLEA officers in Kwara State recovered 104kgs of skunk from
a Toyota camry car in Offa area of the state, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was nabbed at Mafa checkpoint in Borno State with 11.8kgs of same substance on Monday, September 25.
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 on Monday, September 25, 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 on Wednesday, September 27, arrested a suspect, Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, with 59,867 pills of opioids including Tramadol and 4.03kgs cannabis sativa at Idah area of the state.
The NDLEA spokesman noted that 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,” Babafemi stated.
