A businesswoman heading to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Umrah (Lesser Hajj) has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja for ingesting 80 pellets of cocaine.
According to the NDLEA spokesman, Mr. Femi Babafemi, the 46-year-old Mrs. Adisa Afusat Olayinka who lives in Ibafo, Ogun state hails from Ilorin, in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara state. She was arrested on Wednesday 24th November at the boarding screening area of the airport during an outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight 1418. She was subsequently taken into custody where she excreted 80 pellets of the illicit drug between Wednesday and Saturday, 27th Nov.
She claimed during interviews that she saved N2.5million over a period of one year to buy the drugs in bits from six different people at Akala, Mushin area of Lagos. The suspect further said she was trading in clothes but had to borrow N1million from three persons to make up the money used to buy the drugs, adding that she spent another N1million to renew her passport, visa and buy return flight tickets.
She said she was encouraged to traffic the drugs by a woman she met during her last Umrah trip to Saudi Arabia in 2019. She added that she needed to raise N7million for In Vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment due to pressure from people because she’s been married for 28 years without a child due to fertility challenges.
Meanwhile, another trafficker, Inusa Abdulrazaki was arrested with 101 wraps of Heroin weighing 1.3 kilograms on Friday 19th Nov. at Gate C -Departure hall of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos on his way to Italy via Istanbul on Turkish Airlines. The drugs were concealed inside cassava flour popularly called gari. The following day Saturday 20th Nov, NDLEA operatives at the airport during a routine cargo search at NAHCO export shed intercepted an abandoned consignment of khat 17.90kg.
Recall that on Sunday the NDLEA announced the arrest of a 70-year-old woman, Beatrice Aigbedion, who was arrested with over 5,000 kilograms of assorted illicit drugs in Edo State.
She was nabbed alongside others in various parts of the state.
“After days of surveillance, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday 24th November stormed a warehouse at Uhiere, Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state, where they recovered a total of 4,261.5kg of cannabis Sativa and a suspect, Ikong Stanley, arrested,” Babafemi said in a statement.
“At the point of her arrest in Irrua last Wednesday, 70-year-old Mrs. Aigbedion was caught with different quantities of Codeine cough syrup, Swinol, and Rohypnol while another dealer, Joseph Onyemaechi, 50, was also nabbed at Ikpoba Okha, Upper Sakponba- Benin City, on Friday with different types of psychotropic substances weighing 2.055kg. Similarly, Gabriel Akioya and Isa Salihu were arrested on Thursday 25th Nov at Irrua, Esan Central LGA with various quantities of Codeine, Tramadol, Swinol, and Rohypnol.”
Also, NDLEA operatives at the weekend seized 12,385 kilograms of Loud Cannabis, a strong variant of the illicit weed imported from a neighbouring country and smuggled into Lagos through the waterways.
The agency acted on credible intelligence that 12,385 pellets of Loud Cannabis were brought in from the West African country through the ocean and ferried with boats to the Eko Atlantic Beach, Victoria Island from where they would be distributed to drug hotspots such as Island, Peti Alagba, and others across Lagos and other states.
It was gathered that over 50 narcotic officers stormed the beach on Saturday 27th November and recovered the consignments along with two long trucks, a Toyota Sienna bus.
During the operation, three suspects – Abdulkadri Zakari, Ka’abu Sausu, and Lawrence Adie – were apprehended.
In Delta State, operatives raided Hampton Towers and Spa Hotel, Okpanam Road, Asaba where Dobedient Etumudor and Thompson Chukwuemeka were arrested with different quantities of psychoactive substances, while another dealer, Emeka Ben was nabbed with 4.7 grams of Methamphetamine along Asaba – Ibusa road. Other suspects arrested on Thursday 25th Nov in the state for dealing in Meth, Cannabis, Cocaine, and Heroin include Ifeanyi Odibe, Uche Onwurah, and Justice Obika.
In Kano, a drug dealer, Alhaji Bukar Malan Abdu, was arrested and 143 kilograms of cannabis were recovered from him while 466kg of the same drug was seized in the home of one Bashir Shuaibu, an indigene of Edo State but resident in Kano, who deals in Cannabis Sativa.
The statement added, “On Thursday 25th Nov, a drug dealer in Maiduguri, Borno state, Chima Obi was arrested in a follow-up operation following the seizure of his drug consignment, 73.2kg codeine, at an NDLEA checkpoint in Postiskum, Yobe state same day.”
Reacting to the arrests and seizures in Lagos, Edo, Delta, Kano, and Yobe states, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers and men involved in the operations.
While urging them along with their compatriots in other commands not to rest on their oars, he charged them to always strive to record greater feats until the drug supply and drug demand reduction targets of the agency are fully achieved.
