The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted illicit drug consignments concealed in different items at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos State.
The NDLEA operatives also thwarted the attempt to smuggle drugs through a courier service in Lagos.
At the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, September 12 intercepted an intending passenger, Ugwu Peter Tochukwu, going to Oman, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight.
NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said upon a thorough search of his luggage, 7.50 kilograms of skunk were discovered concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilograms of skunk and 14 grams of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and soles of ladies’ high heeled shoes respectively.
In Imo state, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Aba-Owerri expressway on Wednesday, September 13, intercepted five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking. They were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in Naze area of Owerri to Ikenegbu area of the state capital.
The victims include: Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16. In their statements, they claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them.
The Imo state command of the Agency has since been directed to hand them over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP) for further investigations.
The NDLEA also said while two suspects: Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were arrested with 227.1kgs of cannabis on Tuesday, September 11 at Ikebe village, Ankpa LGA, Kogi State, a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was nabbed with 108kgs of same substance on Saturday, September 16 in Ifo area of Ogun state.
A total of 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55kgs and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo of Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday, September 11 along Abuja road have been traced to two other suspects: Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali, who were arrested in follow-up operations in Kano.
In FCT Abuja, a 27-year-old Kingsley Chimaobi was arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on Tuesday, September 11.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday, September 13 sentenced to five years imprisonment a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi, for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilograms of skunk. He was arrested on Saturday, July 1 while conveying 89 jumbo bags of the illicit substance in his truck around Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki.
He was subsequently charged in suit number FHC/L/388C/2023 before Justice Akintayo Aluko.
