The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have intercepted a 40-year-old businessman, Ejike Chibuke Solomon, with 1.45 kilograms of cocaine concealed in his luggage while attempting to board an Ethiopia Airlines flight number 950 to Vietnam via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
Ejike was arrested at the Abuja airport on Saturday after the NDLEA officers subjected him to a thorough search, and in the process, the illicit substance was discovered concealed, factory-fitted, in his bag.
This was disclosed on Sunday in a press statement signed by the agency’s Director, Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, noting that the suspect claimed he was on a business trip to Vietnam.
Meanwhile, operatives of a special unit of the agency had earlier on Friday swooped on members of a syndicate that dealt in methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in their hideouts in parts of Lagos. The operatives assigned for the operation raided the home of Esimone Amachukwu Christopher at 14 Arochukwu Street, Ejigbo, where 10.012 kilograms of methamphetamine were found in possession of his associate; 40-year-old Evelyn Nneka Okem. Esimone is, however, currently at large.
“While the Ejigbo operation was going on, another set of officers were simultaneously busy in the residence of another member of the syndicate, 45-year-old Ebele Edwin Iwuegbunam, located at Plot 1604 Close D, 4th Avenue, Festac town, Lagos where they arrested him and recovered 429.5grams of cocaine and seven kilograms of heroin.
“In Kogi State, the NDLEA officers on a stop-and-search operation along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Expressway on Friday intercepted a commercial bus marked GRM 347XA (Borno) conveying 28 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 11kg; 100 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup and 500 tablets of diazepam, all concealed in three plastic drums covered with cattle fats, heading to Jos, Plateau State.
“While operatives in Ogun State on Thursday recovered 169kg consignment of cannabis abandoned in a truck at Sagamu tollgate, their counterparts in Lagos seized 25 cartons of tramadol containing 325,000 pills in Ikeja the previous day, Wednesday, February 28. The same day, a suspect, Abdullahi Garba Khalil, 42, and 2,745,000 capsules of pregabalin recovered from him at Singer Market, Sabon Gari area of Kano State, were handed over to the state command of the NDLEA by the Department of State Services.”
Babafemi disclosed that the 243 Recce Battalion, Nigerian Army, Badagry had on Saturday transferred 27 sacks of cannabis sativa weighing 1,110kg recovered at a coastal community, Ajido by soldiers, to the Seme Special Area Command of the NDLEA.
“In Abia State, the NDLEA operatives on Thursday raided a drug joint at Cemetery Barracks, Aba, where Ifeanyi Uche, 37, was arrested with different quantities of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Another raid was carried out at the abandoned Enyimba Hotel, Ogbor Hill, Aba, where illicit substances were seized and suspects arrested on Friday.”
He expressed delight that the various commands of the agency across the country continued with the War Against Drug Abuse advocacy campaign in the past week.
“Some of them included WADA sensitisation lecture for students and teachers of Fobin Primary and Secondary School, Idiroko, Seme, Lagos; Army Barracks Grammar School, Mokola, Ibadan, Oyo state; State Model Secondary School, Awka, Anambra State; Government Girls Secondary School, Okumgba-Ama, Ogoloma, Okrika, Rivers State and leaders and residents of Lapan community, Gombe State, among others.”
He said the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers and men of the NAIA, Abia, Ogun, Kogi, Lagos, Seme, Borno and Kano Commands of the Agency as well as those of the Special Unit for their outstanding feats in the past week, and equally applauded them and their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.