AS OPERATIVES NAB SAUDI-BOUND LADY WITH 52 PELLETS; DESTROY OVER 11 TONNES OF CANNABIS IN KANO, OGUN, EDO FORESTS
By Rhoda Okoh
A trafficker, Chukwuemeka Clement (67 years) excreted a total of 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.195 kilograms in four excretions.
This follows a body scan carried on him during an inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, NAIA, Abuja where multiple pellets were revealed in his stomach led to his arrest by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA on Tuesday 3rd October.
A statement by Femi Babafemi, Director, Media & Advocacy NDLEA Headquarters Abuja Sunday 8th October 2023 said the criminal enterprise he claimed he ventured into ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine into his stomach to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh.
He claimed to have spent 30 years in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand, while he was once married, but lost his wife and without a child. He added that was why he decided to go into drug trafficking to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh.
The statement also revealed that the operatives had Tuesday 3rd October intercepted a 45-year-old woman, Bilkisu Mohammed Bello while preparing to board a Saudia Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport (MAKIA), Kano.
She confessed that pellets of cocaine given to her to swallow before her flight were kept in a house in the Farawa area of Kano. When she led NDLEA officers to the house, 52 wraps of the illicit substance with a total weight of 767 grams were recovered.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps, and Amotekun personnel on Tuesday 3rd October stormed James town, in Ogunmakin, Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun state where they located, and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of cannabis sativa covering over 4.152 hectares.
While on their way back from the operation, the team also intercepted a truck marked FS548XN carrying a 40ft container loaded with logs of wood. A search of the container led to the recovery of two bags of cannabis sativa weighing 20kgs while six suspects: Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan and Abdulazeez Saied, in the truck, were arrested.
In the same vein, operatives on Sunday 1st October raided Obi camp in Owan West LGA, Edo state where 30 sacks of skunk weighing 300kgs and concealed in charcoal were evacuated from an old dilapidated mud house. Similarly, two cannabis farms measuring 1.179065 hectares at Igbanke forest in Orhiowon local government area of the state were identified and destroyed on Friday 6th October while four suspects: Tersoo Zaria, 28; Ifeanyi Osai, 53; Moses David, 19, and Daniel Gabriel, 20, were arrested.
In Gombe state, a suspect, Auwal Bindow was arrested on Friday 6th October along the Bauchi – Gombe road with 50,000 capsules of tramadol, while in Oyo state, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway nabbed Anuoluwapo Blessing Iyanu, 32, with 52 blocks of compressed pawpaw shaped cannabis sativa weighing 30kgs on Wednesday 4th October.
Commanding officers and men of the NAIA, MAKIA, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, and Gombe Commands of the Agency for their outstanding feats in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) applauds their counterparts for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures, thus creating a fair balance between their drug supply and drug demand reduction activities.
