A drug kingpin wanted for attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom tops the list of arrests made by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA through interdiction operations that led to the seizure of four tons of illicit substances in the past week.
Obiorah Chigozie Samuel has been on the wanted list of the Agency since 15th September 2023 when a consignment of 1.500kg skunk concealed in flour going to London, UK was intercepted at the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos, and his freight agent, Nworah Adaugo Precious arrested.
Convinced that the 1.500kg consignment had sailed through, Obiorah walked into the Agency’s dragnet on Thursday 28th September when he personally brought another tranche of 2.00kg concealed in cartons to the airport for shipment to the UK. In his interview, Obiorah claimed he was into shoes sales in Lagos before venturing into the illicit drug business.
Meanwhile, operatives of the Federal Capital Territory Command of the Agency on Friday 29th September intercepted a container truck with registration number BD G41 XM coming from Lagos to Kano at the Gwagwalada area of the FCT. No less than 1,188 kilograms of skunk loaded at Owo, Ondo state and hidden under cartons of tooth paste were recovered from the truck and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, arrested.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers in Bayelsa state on Wednesday 27th September seized 432kgs of the same substance from an abandoned J5 bus along Saipem road, Opolo, Yenagoa. The vehicle was equally recovered from the scene for further investigation.
In Kano, a septuagenarian grandpa, Ado Mai Unguwa, 70, was arrested on Saturday 30th September with 143.2kgs skunk in Dindere village, Tofa LGA, while operatives in Enugu same day recovered 110.6kgs of same substance from a locked-up shop at Aria new market.
Operatives in Lagos also on Saturday 30th September stormed the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin where they seized 212.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug lord. This is even as NDLEA officers in Kwara state recovered 104kgs of skunk from a Toyota camry car in Offa area of the state, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was nabbed at Mafa check point, Borno state with 11.8kgs of same substance on Monday 25th September.
In Plateau, the state police command in the spirit of inter-agency collaboration transferred four suspects: Yusuf Akim; Frank Gah; Jackson Ejeh and Joseph Utsu, and 1,978kgs cannabis recovered from them to the state command of NDLEA, while in Cross River, operatives on Monday 25th September seized 40,000 ampules of pentazocine injection from two suspects: Fajulugbe Adeshola Temitayo, 35, and Nnaorji Agwe Solomon, 54, at Mobil by MCC road, Calabar.
Also in Kogi state, NDLEA officers on Wednesday 27th September arrested a suspect, Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, with 59,867 pills of opioids including Tramadol and 4.03kgs cannabis sativa at Idah area of the state.
War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, advocacy activities equally continued across the country in the past week. Some of them include: WADA advocacy visit to the Director/CEO, Nigeria French Village, Badagry, Lagos, Prof. Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru by the Seme Special Area command of NDLEA; WADA sensitisation lecture at Ar-Rahmania College of Health Sciences, Minna, Niger state;Â WADA advocacy lecture at Pentecostal Academy, Aba, Abia state and WADA sensitisation lecture for students and staff of School of Nursing, Eket, Akwa Ibom state among others.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, FCT, Bayelsa, Borno, Kogi, Kwara, Cross River, Borno and Enugu Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.