Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have seized 9,939 kilograms of Loud, Colos, skunk and other illicit drugs across the country during operations within the last one week.
The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, made this known in a statement on Sunday, saying the seizures and recoveries were made in Lagos, Niger, Edo, Anambra and Ondo States.
According to him, operatives on Thursday, 29 January, arrested a Brazil-based Nigerian businessman, Uche Franklin Onyekwere, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, for concealing cocaine in his private part and the soles of his footwear.
Onyekwere, 47, was apprehended during the inward clearance of passengers on a South African Airways flight arriving from Brazil via Johannesburg, following processed intelligence. A body scan conducted on the suspect confirmed illicit drug concealment, after which a strip search led to the discovery of three large wraps of cocaine.
One parcel of the white powdery substance was found strapped to his right thigh, while two additional wraps were concealed in the soles of a pair of flat shoes he was wearing. The cocaine recovered from his body and footwear weighed a total of 1.60 kilograms.
In a preliminary interview, the suspect disclosed that he purchased the cocaine in Brazil to resell in Nigeria in order to raise capital for his business and finance the naming ceremony of his newborn child. He stated that he has lived in São Paulo, Brazil, since 2008, where he operates a toy business.
Meanwhile, NDLEA officers at the Tincan Seaport, Lagos, on Wednesday, 28 January, intercepted 55 jumbo bags of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis weighing 1,183 kilograms. The illicit drugs, imported from Montreal, Canada, were concealed inside a Hyundai SUV and a Toyota Matrix car within a container examined jointly by NDLEA, Customs and other security agencies.
In Niger State, operatives acting on credible intelligence intercepted a long truck marked T 31589 LA along the Dei-Dei–Abuja Expressway in the early hours of Tuesday, 26 January. Three suspects—Andy Chidogu (49), Kenneth Ogene (45), and Sadiq Olanrewaju (27)—were arrested with 176 bags of skunk weighing 2,735 kilograms and one kilogram of Colorado, a synthetic cannabis. Investigations revealed that the truck driver negotiated a N1.7 million fee to transport the drugs from Ekpoma, Edo State.
Further operations in Edo State led to the arrest of Shaibu Yusuf along the Auchi–Abuja Expressway with 66 bags of skunk weighing 792 kilograms concealed in bags of charcoal. In another raid supported by Nigerian Army personnel, NDLEA operatives destroyed 4,063.675 kilograms of skunk cultivated on over 1.6 hectares of farmland at Ebora Camp, Ilushi, Esan South East Local Government Area. An additional 328 kilograms of processed cannabis and seeds were recovered, while four suspects were arrested.
In Anambra State, a cement truck intercepted at Upper Iweka, Onitsha, was found to be conveying 345.2 kilograms of skunk concealed beneath bags of cement. The owner of the drugs, Abum Okeke, 42, was arrested alongside two others.
In Ondo State, two suspects—Tunde Ogundele (39) and Soji Elegbelye (46)—were arrested at Eleyewo community, Akure North, with 473 kilograms of skunk. In Kano State, operatives recovered 12,500 ampoules of pentazocine injection from Abdullahi Usman, 45, while 4,390 tramadol pills were seized from Musa Shuaibu, 42, in a separate operation.
Additional seizures include 15.5 kilograms of skunk recovered from Oragwan Ekene at Okeyson Park, Alaba, Lagos, and 3.5 kilograms of skunk found hidden in a sound system and cereal packs in the luggage of Omang Peter Edward at the Seme Border, Badagry.
Across the country, NDLEA commands also sustained the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation campaigns, reaching schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities in states including Yobe, Abia, Enugu, Lagos, Katsina and Oyo.
Commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Tincan, Niger, Lagos, Edo, Anambra, Ondo and Kano Commands for their professionalism, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), urged them to maintain the balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction nationwide.
