The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that their officers have stopped several attempts by drug groups to sneak drugs in and out of Nigeria. These drugs, including cocaine and a special type of cannabis called Loud, were hidden in different items like incense candles, game boards, dried hibiscus leaves, and women’s traditional clothes. These attempts happened at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) and some courier companies in Lagos.
According to NDLEA’s Media Director, Femi Babafemi, the agency seized these illegal drugs and arrested the people involved.
One of the people arrested was a businessman named Abdulwahab Owolabi Alebiosu. He was caught at his home in Lekki, Lagos, after a package containing 40 parcels of Loud, weighing 20.30 kilograms, was found. The package came from Canada on a British Airways flight and was hidden in game boards. More drug-related items were found at his house, including a weighing scale and a cannabis potency test kit. Four vaping machines were also found at his business location along with a black truck.
At another location within the airport, NDLEA agents found two large bags headed to Pakistan. These bags contained dried plants like hibiscus and bitter leaves, which were used to hide four parcels of cocaine and 14 parcels of Loud.
Babafemi said that this led to the arrest of a woman named Eze Queen Ogechi. She claimed she was sending these drugs to Pakistan for her brother, Eze Nnamdi Promise, who lives there.
In another case, a man from Benin named Orobi Adoubi Amen was caught at the Lagos airport. He was traveling to Dubai with a bag containing women’s traditional clothes. Hidden inside these clothes were eight parcels of Loud, weighing 2.10 kilograms. He was promised N600,000 for delivering the package to Dubai.
More seizures included 4.5 kg of drugs hidden inside the panels of an imported Toyota RAV 4 from Canada. The car was found at Tincan port in Lagos. Two suspects, Dada Kole and Alaba Oladewusi, were arrested for this.
In Kebbi State, a man named Amadu Garba, who has only one leg, was found with six bags of cannabis weighing 67 kg.
In Abuja, two men, Ademola Elusakin (60) and Nuhu Friday Adamu (34), were caught with 30 kg of cannabis on their way to Nasarawa State. Elusakin said they bought the drugs in Ghana and were taking them to miners in Nasarawa.
In several other states, many suspects were also arrested with various amounts of cannabis. In Osun State, NDLEA recovered 34 bags of cannabis weighing 312 kg from the storehouse of a drug dealer named Choji Gyang (also known as Pararam). His manager, Kelvin Onwutalu, was arrested.
In Jigawa State, three men were caught with 90 blocks of cannabis weighing 116.8 kg at Roni junction.
Babafemi added that two men in Kaduna were arrested with 336 bottles of codeine syrup and another man was nabbed with 45 kg of cannabis along the Zaria-Kano highway.
In Ondo State, NDLEA, supported by soldiers, found a white Toyota Hilux van packed with 652 parcels of cannabis weighing 685 kg at a mechanic workshop.
In Nasarawa State, NDLEA found 38 kg of cannabis and a locally made gun in the home of a suspect named Christopher Ombugadu during a raid.
The Chairman of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised the officers for their hard work. He asked them to keep up their efforts to reduce the supply and demand for drugs in the country.
