During interdiction operations in Lagos, Kogi, FCT, Jigawa, Kaduna, Sokoto, and Edo states, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says its operatives seized more than four tons of illicit and controlled drugs, including shipments of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), skunk, codeine syrup, methamphetamine, and tramadol.
On Friday, September 22nd, NDLEA agents patrolling the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road allegedly stopped two Toyota Sienna buses carrying 1,194 cylinders of laughing gas weighing a combined 2,547.2 kilos.
On Sunday, NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy Femi Babafemi released a statement saying that Onyebuchi Ikpozu and Kenneth Igwe, the two men suspected of transporting the shipments to the country’s Federal Capital Territory, had been apprehended.
It was revealed in the statement that two different Toyota Sienna buses, one with registration number KTU 582 HV carrying 99 cartons containing 594 cylinders weighing 1,267.200kgs, and the other with registration number FKJ 329 YA carrying 100 cartons containing 600 cylinders weighing 1,280kgs, were transporting the drug.
Mrs. Ugo Eluba, 48, was arrested in Abuja as part of a follow-up operation after 2,400 ampules of pentazocine injection and 100,000 pills of Exol-5 were confiscated in Kogi state and tracked back to her, according to the anti-narcotics agency.
On the other hand, the NDLEA said its agents seized 977 kg of skunk from a trailer labeled LSR 343 XW that was transporting maggi boxes on September 20.
The shipment of skunk was placed into the truck at the Ipele junction in Ondo state, the statement said, and 959 kilograms of it were destined for distribution in Sokoto State, with the remainder being sent to Gwagwalada.
NDLEA also reported the arrest of two individuals, Auwal Mohammed and Abdullahi Abubakar, in connection with the seizure. On Saturday, September 23, in the Zuba area of the FCT, Mutari Abdulazeez, 31, and Ayuba Madaki, 28, were arrested with varying quantities of methamphetamine, cannabis, and 13,930 tramadol pills.
Similarly, on September 23rd, NDLEA operatives stopped and searched two men, ages 27 and 20, carrying 89.1 kg of skunk along the Kano-Hadejia route in Jigawa state.
Meanwhile, NDLEA reported that on September 18th, along the Abuja–Forest road in Kaduna, a suspect named Usman Musa Sidi, 35, was apprehended with over six thousand ampules of pentazocine injection on his way to the state of Bauchi.
The agency also revealed that the consignment’s real owner, Dominic Chukwuma, 35, was arrested in a follow-up operation in Bauchi on Tuesday, September 19; at least 2.58 kilograms of Diazepam and 36.55 kilograms of pentazocine injection were recovered from his residence. Additionally, two other suspects, Inuwa Nuhu and Isiyaku Dahiru Sani, were arrested on the same day in connection with the seizure of 49 blocks of
The NDLEA also recovered 183 kilograms of the cannabis strain Ghana Loud from the body compartments of a J5 bus that was intercepted in Lagos on September 20; on Tuesday, September 19, operatives in the city of Sokoto arrested one Charles Okeke, 44, who was in possession of 473 bottles of codeine syrup in the Unguwar Kosai area of Sokoto; and on September 21, 365 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa weighing 258 kilograms were recovered
In addition, the NDLEA said that between September 11th and 13th, its agents conducted a large operation in the dense woodlands of Ijesha Isu-Ekiti in the Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti state, destroying 40 tons (40,000 kilos) of cannabis plants across 16 hectares of farmland.
Meanwhile, the anti-drug agency reported that WADA lectures and advocacy visits to places of worship, schools, businesses, palaces of traditional rulers, and villages had continued throughout the week.
Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Ret. ), the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, issued a statement praising the Agency’s officers and men in the states of Lagos, FCT, Kaduna, Jigawa, Kogi, Sokoto, and Edo for their recent arrests and seizures.
The Marwa also praised their countrymen in all the commands across the country for spreading the WADA awareness lectures and advocacy messages far and wide beyond their respective spheres of influence.
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