Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested a Brazil returnee, Udechukwu Ekene Theophilus, 41, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos for ingesting 60 big wraps of cocaine.
According to NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, the suspect who was arrested during inward clearance of passengers on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Sao Paulo, Brazil via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the D-Arrival Hall of the Lagos airport on Sunday, January 21, 2024, initially refused to undergo body scan, raising health concerns in a desperate bid to evade arrest.
When he was offered other options, he accepted to be placed on excretion observation and shortly after he was ushered into the NDLEA observatory, he excreted the first set of cocaine pellets, after which he expelled a total of 60 wraps of the class A drug weighing 1.279 kilograms in five excretions.
In his statement, Udechukwu claimed he ingested the consignment in Brazil and was to discharge everything at the airport in Addis Ababa but could only excrete 15 pellets which he handed over to another member of his syndicate before joining his connecting flight to Nigeria.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives at the Lagos airport on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, recovered a total of 12 cartons of tramadol 225mg containing 599,900 pills weighing 385.40kg from an overstayed cargo at the SAHCO import shed of the Lagos airport after a joint examination with other agencies.
The tramadol consignment had come into the country in two batches on KLM Royal Dutch Airline flights from Karachi, Pakistan between July 27, and August 1, 2023. They were however placed under watch by NDLEA operatives since then.
Not less than 822 kilograms of cannabis sativa hidden in a fuel station located at Ashipa community along Badagry-Seme road were recovered by operatives of the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA, while a suspect Sani Audu, 35, was arrested with 111.3kg of same substance at Maigatari town in Jigawa State on Tuesday 23, January.
In Yobe state, two suspects: Mohammed Usman and Adamu Ma’azu were arrested on Saturday, January 27, 2024, with 49 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 50kg at Damaturu motor park, Damaturu, while the duo of Paul Obor, 38, and Dennis Fuokorighe, 48, who were arrested on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, at a Navy checkpoint, Itobe, Ofu LGA, Kogi state with 318 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 190.8kg concealed in a gold colour Honda Accord Car marked RBC 449AE, were handed over to the Kogi state command of the Agency on Friday 26th Jan. by men of the Nigeria Navy Ship, Lugard, Lokoja.
In Kano, a suspect, Shamwilu Idris, 29, was arrested in the Gadar Tamburawa area on Thursday, January 25, 2024, with 271kg of cannabis following the seizure of an abandoned 28.1kg of the same substance at Rijiyar Lemo area of the state on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
Another suspect, Abubakar Haruna Salisu, 24, was nabbed at Kotun Wambai, Yan Awaki, area of Kano on Friday, January 26, 2024, with 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup while a total of 1, 306 blocks of cannabis weighing 886kg seized by the Police at Kwanar Dangora, area of the state were transferred to the Agency on Wednesday, January 24, 2024.
A total of 87 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 73kg as well as 21, 346 pills of tramadol and 3,800 tablets of diazepam were recovered from a suspect, Musa Galadima on Friday, January 26, 2024, when his DAF truck marked GME 971 XD was intercepted at Lafiyawo, along Gombe – Bauchi road by NDLEA operatives. In Plateau state, Aminu Ubanta, 35, was nabbed on Saturday, January 27, with 5.355kg of cannabis at the Layin Zana area of Jos.
Meanwhile, an ex-beauty queen, Ms Aderinoye Queen Christmas also known as Ms Queen Oluwadamilola Aderinoye has been declared wanted by the Agency after she escaped from her Lekki, Lagos residence when NDLEA operatives raided her apartment at the Oral estate, Lekki on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, following credible intelligence she deals in illicit substances.
The suspect was Miss Commonwealth Nigeria Culture 2015/2016 and the founder of the Queen Christmas Foundation.
Recovered from her home during the search witnessed by the estate officials include 606 grams of Canadian Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale, large quantities of drugs packing plastics, a black RAV 4 SUV marked Lagos KSF 872 GQ, and her picture frame among others.
Two members of an international drug trafficking syndicate: Sunday Michael Owoborode, 52, and Valentine Anene were arrested the next day Thursday, January 25, 2024, at Edu Orita, Ogun state where Valentine was being prepared to travel with some drugs to Qatar same day on board a Qatar airline flight from Lagos.
At the time of their arrest, 1.8kg of cannabis, an electronic weighing scale and other illicit substances were found on them. In another interdiction operation by operatives in Lagos, a 50-year-old Sunday Adediran was arrested on Wednesday, January 24, with 20kg cannabis sativa found in one of the rooms in his house at Mushin Olosha.
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 of Government Day Primary and Secondary School, Jiddel Michika, Adamawa state; students of Soltab Comprehensive College, Abeokuta, Ogun state; pupils and teachers of Sangotedo Primary School, Ajah, Lagos state; pupils and teachers of ADS Basic Primary School 1&2, Ogbomoso, Oyo state; students and teachers of Farfanu Malami community secondary school, Magama Jibia, Katsina state; and WADA advocacy visit to His Royal Highness, Dr. Gibson Nwabueze Nwosu, Eze Uzu 11 of Awka, Anambra state, among others.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Seme, Kano, Gombe, Kogi, Plateau and Jigawa Commands of the Agency for their outstanding feats in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) equally applauded their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures thus creating a balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.
