The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has recorded major breakthroughs with the seizure of over 1.3 million pills of tramadol and other opioids and about 6,000 kilograms of cannabis, valued at more than N3.4 billion, in operations across Lagos, Edo, Niger, Delta, Ondo, Gombe, Imo and the FCT.
Leading the operations was the interception of 1,200 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 603.75kg valued at N1.81bn from a 40-foot container from Montreal, Canada, at Tin-Can Island Port, Lagos, on September 16, after joint examination with Customs. Also in Delta, operatives on the Benin-Onitsha expressway in Asaba arrested 49-year-old Innocent Ekpe, who impersonated a Deputy Superintendent of Police with a forged ID card to ferry drugs, with 292.48kg of skunk in a Toyota Sienna bus. His accomplice, Nduka Joseph, 39, was also arrested.
In Edo, Matthew Ossai, 45, was arrested on Agbor Road, Benin City, for using his auto workshop as a drug store, with 48kg of Canadian Loud and methamphetamine recovered. Along Abuja-Kaduna highway in Niger, three suspects — Bashir Usman, 20, Abubakar Nuhu, 18, and Abdulrahman Abdulwahab, 18 — were caught with locally fabricated AK-47 rifles, pistol and ammunition.
On Abaji-Abuja highway, Aminu Isyaku, 23, and Jamilu Habibu, 25, were arrested with over 1.1 million tramadol, codeine and methamphetamine pills. In Lagos, Onyeka Ofor was arrested in Aguda, Surulere with 48,900 tramadol pills, Luke Ugokwe was picked up with 59kg cannabis at a logistics firm, and Ibrahim Hudu, 43, was arrested at Apongbo with 998.38kg nitrous oxide. Also, 154,480 tramadol capsules were seized from two suspects in Gombe, 43.85kg skunk from a suspect in Imo, and 5,000kg of skunk destroyed on a two-hectare farm in Ondo with four suspects nabbed.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), commended officers of the affected commands for their professionalism, urging them to sustain the balanced approach to drug control, while the Agency continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization in schools and communities nationwide.
