The attempts was thwarted through the robust synergy between
men of the Nigeria Customs Service and NDLEA officers at the airport as well as
those at the DHL cargo warehouse.
Preliminary findings revealed that the consignments were
imported from India and Pakistan, while some of the seized consignments had
Freetown, Sierra Leone as final destination.
No further details was revealed by NDLEA but investigations
are ongoing to nab the owners of the illicit drugs.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Bauchi state recovered
a total of Six Million Two Hundred and Sixty-Five and Eighty (6,265,080) pills
of opioids from three suspects: Emmanuel Onyebuchi, 32; Uche Iyida, 33; and
Chinedu Ezeanyim, 32 following their arrest alongside a truck driver and his
assistant at Shopping Complex, Maiduguri Bye-Pass, Bauchi town on Wednesday
19th July and the subsequent follow up search of the residence of Iyida on
Friday 21st July.
No fewer than Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Five Hundred
(999,500) tablets of Exol-5 were also recovered by operatives from a shop close
to the market at Hong Road, Gombi, Adamawa state on Friday 21st July, while
46,000 capsules of tramadol were seized from a suspect, Paul Ajaegbu, 36, along
Owerri – Aba road, Imo state on Monday 17th July.
Same suspect had earlier been arrested, precisely on 9th
February 2023, for the same offence.
In Ondo state, NDLEA operatives in their numbers stormed the
Ofosu forest where they destroyed 29 hectares of cannabis farms on Thursday
20th July. The quartet of Osamezu George Chukwuemeka, 51, who owns the farm;
his wife Kate Osamezu, 43; Agboola Wasiu, 37 and Mustapha Sanni, were arrested
during the operation, while 118.5kg processed cannabis was recovered from the
farm. In another raid of the warehouse of a suspect at Elegbeka, Ose LGA, not
less than 107 jumbo bags of the same illicit substance weighing 1,132.5kg were
recovered on Monday 17th July.
While operatives in Sokoto state arrested a suspect, Charles
Nwankwo, 50, with 610kg of cannabis in Tamaje area of Sokoto on Friday 21st
July, their counterparts in Yobe also same day nabbed a fleeing suspect Shaibu
Musa, 29, in Dawasa while he was offering them a bribe of N500,000 following
the seizure of 36kg skunk in his house on Wednesday 19th July.
In Edo state, operatives on Monday 17th July raided the
Utese forest Ovia North East LGA where they arrested Victor Asukwo Jack, with
59 bags of processed cannabis sativa weighing 640kg. His two cannabis farms
measuring 1.489895 hectares and 2.445295 hectares were destroyed.
Also, Endurance Chukwuma, 50, was arrested with seven bags
of processed cannabis sativa weighing 68kg, while his cannabis farm measuring
0.254324 hectares was destroyed.
A total of 273kg cannabis was earlier intercepted in a
Toyota Sienna Vehicle marked RBC 451 CM on Wednesday 19th July at Ogida, Benin
City, and a suspect, Lucky Oriakhi, 41, arrested while operatives also seized
48,380 pills of tramadol in a commercial bus marked KAK 66 XA along Ewohimi
road, heading to Kabba, Kogi state and arrested the driver, Ibrahim John. In
Nasarawa, two suspects: Abubakar Suleiman, 30 and Shehu Garba (aka Shagari), 29
were arrested along Keffi – Akwanga road on Tuesday 18th July in a Peugeot J5
vehicle loaded with 1,608.4 kilograms of cannabis sativa. The consignment was
loaded in Edo state and meant for distribution in Bauchi state.
While a total of 1,556.1kg of cannabis was recovered from
two suspects: Jonathan Nuhu, 54 and Mohammed Abubakar, 18, following their
arrest at Wudil area of Kano State on Thursday 20th July, 76kg of same
substance was seized from Yakubu Muhammad, 32, on Monday 17th July along
Okene/Lokoja highway in a trailer coming from Port Harcourt to Kano. In the
same vein, operatives in Ogun state on Wednesday 19th July, recovered 810
parcels of cannabis weighing 604kg from the house of one Adetunji Abiodun.
Fresh bid to smuggle into Nigeria, another consignment of
Colorado, a synthetic variant of cannabis, through the Tincan port in Apapa Lagos
was again on Friday 21st July frustrated by NDLEA officers who discovered a
total of 323 parcels of the illicit substance weighing 161.5kg concealed in one
of the four used vehicles in a container marked MEDU 7519460 coming from
Montreal, Canada, during a joint examination of the shipment.
At least, three suspects are currently in NDLEA custody over
the shipment while a bribe of N20 million converted to $22,900 offered
operatives by the importers agents has also been recovered and documented as
evidence.
Femi Babafemi, Director of Media and Advocacy for NDLEA,
confirmed all the seizures and arrest on Sunday, 23rd of July 2023.