From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested one Chukwuemeka Clement at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine.
The Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said the 67-year-old was arrested last Tuesday, during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and taken for body scan, which revealed multiple pellets in his stomach. While under observation, he excreted a total of 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.195 kilograms in four excretions.
In his statement, Chukwuemeka claimed to have spent 30 years in Brazil, Ethiopia and Thailand, while he was once married, but lost his wife without a child. He added that he went into drug trafficking to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh.
On the same last Tuesday, NDLEA operatives at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano, intercepted a 45-year-old woman, Bilkisu Mohammed Bello, while preparing to board a Saudi Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia.
While being interviewed, she confessed that pellets of cocaine given to her to swallow before her flight were kept in a house in the Farawa area of Kano. When she led NDLEA officers to the house, 52 wraps of the illicit substance with a total weight of 767grams were recovered.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps and Amotekun personnel last Tuesday, stormed James community, in Ogunmakin, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State, where they located and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of cannabis sativa covering over 4.152 hectares.
While on their way back from the operation, the team also intercepted a truck marked FS548XN, carrying a 40ft container loaded with logs of wood.
A search of the container led to the recovery of two bags of cannabis sativa weighing 20kgs, while six suspects: Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan and Abdulazeez Saied, in the truck, were arrested.
In the same vein, operatives on Sunday, October 1, raided Obi camp in Owan West LGA, Edo State, where 30 sacks of skunk weighing 300kgs and concealed in charcoal were evacuated from an old dilapidated mud house. Similarly, two cannabis farms measuring 1.179065 hectares, at Igbanke forest in Orhionmwon local government area of the state were identified and destroyed last Friday, while four suspects: Tersoo Zaria, 28; Ifeanyi Osai, 53; Moses David, 19, and Daniel Gabriel, 20, were arrested.
In Gombe State, a suspect, Auwal Bindow, was arrested last Friday, along Bauchi – Gombe road with 50,000 capsules of tramadol, while in Oyo State, NDLEA operatives on patrol, along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, nabbed Anuoluwapo Blessing Iyanu, 32, with 52 blocks of compressed pawpaw shaped cannabis sativa weighing 30kgs last Wednesday.
With the same vigour, the various commands of the agency across the country continued with the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy campaign in the past week. Some of them include: WADA sensitisation lecture for students and teachers of Igbonnibi High School, Ila Orangun, Osun State; WADA sensitisation lecture at Royal Ambassador Secondary School, Makurdi, Benue State; WADA sensitisation lecture at Ilora Baptist Grammar School, Ilora, Oyo State, and LGA WADA sensitisation lecture for students of Beth-Root Model Secondary School, Onitsha, Anambra State.
While commending the officers and men of the NAIA, MAKIA, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, and Gombe commands of the agency for their outstanding feats in the past week, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd), equally applauded their counterparts in all the commands across the country, for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures, thus creating a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.