No fewer than 11 members of the trafficking syndicates have been arrested in connection to the seizures.

Beside the 11 suspects, a 35-year-old physically challenged lady, Kasarachi Onumajuru, who hides under her condition to deal drugs in Umudumaonu community, Mbaitoli local government area of Imo State was also arrested on Sunday, May 29.

First on the list of those arrested in connection to seizures at the two airports is Ofor Chima Chileobi who had on Friday, May 20, attempted to export to Dubai, UAE, 200 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 30.20kg concealed in 40 sacks of bitter leaf through the SAHCO export shed, a cargo wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

On the same day, 10 cartons of khat with a gross weight of 354.600kg were also seized at the NAHCO import shed of the airport.

The following day, Saturday 21st May, a freight agent, Roland Orinami was arrested by NDLEA operatives attached to the local wing of the Lagos airport with 1.90kg Loud, a variant of cannabis, factory packed in some bottles while trying to send same via flight to Abuja.

A follow up operation in Abuja led to the arrest of a taxi driver, Nsikak Evans, sent to collect the consignment.

His confession also led to the arrest of the actual owner, Adesanya Olakunle Isaac at his house in Life Camp area of Abuja.

Adesanya who claims to be into Information Technology, accepted ownership of the seized drug, which he said was meant for an upcoming birthday party of one of his friends.

On Tuesday, May 24, another freight agent, Moshood Azeez Olaide, was arrested at NAHCO export shed of the MMIA when he presented a cargo containing psychotropic substances heading to Dubai.

The illegal consignment was packed into other items such as can drinks, liquid bitters and other non-controlled drugs.

The seized drugs include Tramadol 225mg, Rohypnol and MDMA.

A follow up operation led to the arrest of another suspect linked to the crime, Olagboye Selim, on Friday, May 27.

Also on the same day, operatives of the Nigerian Customs Service at NAHCO import shed transferred 15 cartons of khat leaf with a gross weight of 256.70kg, which came into the country on Royal Air Moroc to NDLEA command at the airport.

The previous day, Monday 23rd May, another freight agent, Lasebikan Felix Gbega was arrested with 200 bottles of pentazocine injection, with a brand name “Drutapent” weighing 1.05kg. The consignment was heading to the United States of America.

Another agent, Akuta Chioma Lucy, was on Thursday, May 26 arrested at the SAHCO export shed while attempting to export 14.75kg of khat concealed inside other vegetable leaves and food condiments such as bitter leaf, scent leaf, pepper, all packed in bags for shipment to the United Kingdom.

At the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, a 45-year-old Ezika Ugochukwu Nicholas from Ichida, Anocha area of Anambra State was arrested on Thursday, May 26, for ingesting 60 pellets of cocaine weighing 1.037kg on arrival from Addis Ababa on board Ethiopian airline.

Ezika who claims he’s into shoe business before his arrest travelled to Ethiopia on 23rd May on the invitation of the person who gave him the drug, which he ingested before returning into the waiting arms of NDLEA officers at the Abuja airport.

In the same vein, efforts by drug cartels to export 4kg methamphetamine concealed in nylon rolls to New Zealand were also frustrated by anti-narcotic officers attached to a courier company in Lagos just as they blocked different quantities of cannabis sativa and Tramadol hidden in soles of slippers from being shipped to Oman through the same firm.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 335,820 tablets of Tramadol, Exol 5, Diazepam and Rohypnol as well as 400 bottles of codeine syrup concealed in bags of vegetables have been intercepted in Abuja in a hummer passenger bus coming from Enugu on Monday, May 30.

The bus driver, Augustine James, 35, is currently helping investigation.

In Imo state, 1,111kg of cannabis sativa heading to Orlu forest, which has become a fortress for non-state actors, was intercepted on Thursday, May 26.

Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) has commended the officers and men of MMIA, NAIA, DOGI, FCT and Imo Commands of the Agency for sustaining the heat on drug cartels.

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Following credible intelligence, operatives raided the Garden at Wuse Zone 5 behind Shoprite, where a lady Rachael Famiyesun, 29, who deals in drug cookies was arrested along with her salesgirl, Stella Sunday, 20.

Beside the cookies, they were also caught selling bottles of black currant drink popularly called Zobo prepared with cannabis.

Another business operator in the Garden, Moses Obi, 30, was also arrested with his salesgirl, Aisha Abdulrahman, 19, for selling Indomie noodles prepared with cannabis.

A barman, Ahonye Jonah, 31, who works with the owner of the Garden, was equally arrested while one of their customers, 38-year-old Ngozi Justina Emelogu, was also picked during the raid on Wednesday, January 19.

Two days earlier, officers of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, command of the agency equally raided Zuba Yam Market, where a drug dealer, Haruna Hassan, was arrested with 19.3kg cannabis.

Meanwhile, attempts by drug traffickers to export 1.53 kilograms of cocaine hidden inside hair cream to London, and another 880 grams of cocaine concealed inside synthetic hair to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as well as 3 grams of cocaine and 5grms of cannabis to Cyprus packed inside locally made shoes through two major courier companies in Lagos have been foiled by narcotic officers attached to the firms.

In Edo State, operatives on Tuesday, January 18, intercepted a Toyota Camry car with Reg. No. FKJ 897 DG (LAGOS) loaded with 360.4kg Cannabis sativa heading to Abuja and arrested the driver, Nurudeen Subaru, 42, in Auchi, Etsako West area of the state.

The following day, the Edo command officers also evacuated 111kg cannabis stored in a bush at Iruekpen, Esan West local government area while 276 compressed blocks of the same substance weighing 248.4kg were recovered from one Austin Okongwu (a.k.a Igwe), 45, at Agenebode, Etsako East while moving the drug in a Lexus saloon car with registration number ABC 583 MJ (ABUJA).

Also on Wednesday, January 19, a raid on a drug joint in the Edo State capital, Benin, led to the arrest of three drug dealers: Kelly Ogbebor, 38; Daniel Oviawe, 35, and Kelly Kenmakonam, 29, with different quantities of cocaine and heroin seized from them.

In Plateau State, attempt by 29-year-old Ifeoma Godwin Sade, wife of a drug dealer, Ifeanyi Onyeasi, 34, to swallow 12grams of cocaine found in their house at Agingi, Rukuba road, Jos, during an arrest operation was scuttled by operatives who retrieved the drug from her throat on Sunday, January 16.

Also recovered from them was a monetary exhibit of N234, 650.

Different quantities of cannabis, methamphetamine and tramadol were seized from two suspects – Aliyu Abdullahi and Ishaya Emmanuel – when a commercial bus with registration number GME711YX bringing them from Lagos to Yola, Adamawa State was intercepted along Abuja road by officers of the Plateau State command on Wednesday, January 19.

In Adamawa State, on Wednesday, January 19, the long arm of the law eventually caught a notorious drug dealer, Adamu Musa, who has been on the run for nine months.

His 31-year-old elder sister, Mrs. Hannatu Sini, had been arrested on April 16, 2021, at Gombi local government area of Adamawa with 14.400kg of cannabis sativa and admitted keeping the exhibit for her younger brother, Adamu Musa, who was subsequently placed on the wanted list of the command.

This is even as an ex-convict, Mrs. Modinat Lawal, was arrested in Kano on Wednesday, January 19, with 22kg cannabis sativa she brought into Nigeria from Benin Republic.

She had earlier been arrested, prosecuted and jailed for the same offence.

The Ogun State born trafficker claimed then that her name was Bola.

While commending the officers and men of the FCT, Edo, Plateau, Adamawa, Kano and Directorate of Investigation and General Investigations for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) charged them and their counterparts in other commands to remain vigilant and always proactive.

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Marwa spoke as guest speaker at the 2021 Ulefunta annual public lecture organised by the Deji of Akure kingdom, the Ondo State capital, Oba Aladetoyinbo Ogunlade Aladelusi, and chaired by the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Olu Falae.

Laying the basis for his argument, the NDLEA chief executive said, “the proliferation of illicit drugs often engenders a pattern of crime, chaos and conflict. In the advanced world, it is the driver of high crime rate and violent killings in the inner cities. In developing or Third World countries, it is the escalator of strife, pogroms and civil war, and has played a big role in countries torn to pieces by tribal war, such as it is playing out in Syria, which has become the hotbed of Captagon, and Afghanistan, which controls the opium trade.

“We have seen narco-terrorism in countries like Colombia and Mexico where drug cartels are law unto themselves and are as powerful, if not more powerful, than the State. So, there are real cases, not scenarios, of where and how illicit substances played a role in a society’s rapid descent into chaos and tethering on the brink of a failed state.

“So the pertinent question for us today is: Has drugs played any role in the festering insecurity in Nigeria? The answer is yes. Of this we have ample evidence.”

Represented by his Special Adviser on National Drug Control Master Plan, NDCMP, Otunba Lanre Ipinmisho, Marwa stated that considering the intractable burden of insecurity facing the country, “we do not have the luxury of allowing a narcotic economy to take root and thrive in our society. Africa, nay, Nigeria has enough problems without adding the burden of narco-terrorism.

“Of all the known illicit substances, Cannabis sativa is the only one that is native to Nigeria and it is the most abused of all illicit drugs, and from the findings of the National drug Survey of 2018, cannabis is becoming a national albatross.”

Warning that the population of Nigerians hooked on cannabis alone is more than the population of countries like Portugal, Greece or the Republic of Benin, he said as such the nation could not afford to toy with the grim reality of the danger of legalising cannabis when all the needed infrastructure to monitor and control that were still far from being in place.

“Where cannabis is concerned, we should not by any argument allow ourselves to become the proverbial fool that rushed in where angels fear to tread. Countries like Canada, that are pro-cannabis have strong and efficient institutions that are way ahead of ours by long mileages.

“Given the reality of our law enforcement, controlled cultivation of cannabis is a mirage. Aren’t pharmaceutical opioids controlled? Tramadol, codeine, rohypnol, benzopam, they are all controlled, yet, their trafficking and abuse is causing us unquantifiable human and economic loss. And for those who point at the inherent economic benefit that could accrue from legalisation of cultivation, in accordance with our reality, would you be comfortable, if by tomorrow, your 13-year-old son can easily access marijuana, or you find some wraps of weed in his pocket, or you learnt that someone has introduced your 16-year-old daughter to smoking Igbo under the pretext that it has medicinal value?

“Our individual answer to that question will give us a public opinion of where we should stand as a country in the cannabis debate.”

The NDLEA boss warned that “We should stop treating cannabis like some sweet candy without any side effects. Its repercussions outweigh the vaunted benefits. And legalising its cultivation for a country like Nigeria, is a shortcut to illicit drug Armageddon. At a time we are taking a forward march in the fight against drug abuse, attempting to paint cannabis in a favourable light is akin to taking backward steps.

“As far as NDLEA is concerned, cannabis remains an illicit substance. The Agency shall always canvass against its cultivation, possession, trafficking and sales, and use. And offenders will face the wrath of the law. And, if I may add, our conviction rate is 90% successful.”

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