NDLEA Seizes Over 24,000 Tramadol Pills, Arrests Multiple Suspects In Nationwide Raids
By Sunday Etuka
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted large quantities of illicit drugs and arrested multiple suspects in a series of operations spanning the Federal Capital Territory and several states over the past week.
NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that the operatives, in Abuja on Saturday, August 22, intercepted three waybill packages containing 24,410 tramadol capsules concealed inside a hummer bus travelling from Enugu to Zuba.
The agency said a follow-up operation in Niger State led to the arrest of the consignment’s owner, 28-year-old Sunday Eze, who was picked up in Kontagora and transferred to Abuja.
In Ondo State, it said, the operatives raided a cannabis farm at Ijare forest in Ifedore Local Government Area on Wednesday, August 19, following the earlier arrest of three suspected cannabis planters at the same site on August 16.
The statement said the team destroyed 10,000 kilograms of skunk cultivated across four hectares. Noting that in a separate operation the same day at Ita-Ogbolu in Akure North LGA, operatives recovered 210 kilograms of skunk along with a Toyota Camry registered as AGL 223 JH, belonging to Sylvester Dibiagu Anthony, who remains at large.
According to NDLEA, along the Ogbomosho-Ilorin expressway in Kwara State, a patrol team on Friday, August 21, intercepted an unregistered Toyota Starlet and recovered 1.325 kilograms of methamphetamine wrapped in black nylon bags, along with quantities of cannabis sativa. One suspect, 22-year-old Muhammadu Usman, was arrested.
In Oyo State, it said, a 65-year-old woman, Adebayo Kaosarat, was arrested at Akobo-Ojuirin in Ibadan on the same Friday with a mix of substances totalling 4.68 kilograms, including Scottish Loud, tramadol, codeine syrup, diazepam and flunitrazepam.
Elsewhere, a raid on Hadeija road in Kano on Monday, August 17, led to the arrest of 31-year-old Chibuzor Madueke, from whom 98 blocks of skunk weighing 73.3 kilograms were recovered, disclosing that a similar operation at Seme, in the Badagry area of Lagos, resulted in the arrest of three family members: Nasiru Tijjani, 52; Moshood Tijjani, 27; and Salami Tijjani, 27, near the Seme border with 48 kilograms of skunk.
The agency also disclosed that in Abia State, officers raided the Umuobia Olokoro residence of 36-year-old Ikechukwu Anthony Iwuno in Umuahia South LGA on Thursday, August 20, recovering 14.4 kilograms of Loud, 2.3 kilograms of Colorado, 386 grams of tramadol and 134 grams of rohypnol.
It said alongside the enforcement drive, its commands across the country continued sensitization activities under the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign, visiting schools, religious centers, workplaces and communities. These, it said, included lectures at Umar Bn Khattab College for Islamic Studies in Kano, Markaz Al-Furqan Centre in Kishi, Oyo State, the School of Nursing and Midwifery in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State, and a Qur’anic school in Ibi, Taraba State, as well as engagement with the Scout Association of Nigeria at a national youth camp in Benin City. Adding that the Idiroko Special Area Command also paid an advocacy visit to Ipokia Local Government Chairman Hon. Johnson Avoseh in Ogun State.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), was quoted by the statement to have commended officers across the Ogun, Apapa, Lekki, Seme, Akwa Ibom, Ondo, Oyo, Kwara, Kano, Abia and FCT Commands for the week’s operations, urging them and their colleagues nationwide to sustain what he described as the agency’s “current balanced approach” to drug contro
