A pregnant woman, grandmother and several other persons have been arrested in a series of interdiction operations by officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
During the operations, some 5,527.15 kilograms of methamphetamine and cannabis sativa, as well as 132,090 tablets of tramadol and 2,000 bottles of codeine were recovered by the NDLEA operatives across five states and the Federal Capital Territory in the past week.
The grandmother, Ibinosun Esther was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo state in a follow-up operation after the seizure of 5.5kg variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.
The consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter, was concealed in two giant loudspeakers as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on board an Air Peace Airlines flight.
According to media reports, NDLEA operatives on November 26 intercepted 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.
A cargo agent, Salako Fausat, who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian, who was to travel with the consignment, were promptly arrested.
Another attempt by a freight agent, Adebisi Aina Hafsat to export 3,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in motor spare parts to Banjul, Gambia, through the NAHCO export shed was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and arrested her on November 28, while a follow-up operation to Ebute-Metta area of Lagos the following day, November 29, led to the arrest of the actual owner, Afam Chibuke Stanley, who is a spare-parts dealer.
This was followed by the seizure of 100,000 tablets of Royal brand of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 68.90 kilograms imported from Karachi, Pakistan, on Ethiopian Airlines at the SAHCO import shed.
In Abuja, operatives stormed the warehouse of a convicted, notorious drug lord, Ibrahim Momoh (alias Ibrahim Bendel), who had escaped from prison custody to return to his illegal business. They recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kg.
Though the fleeing drug dealer is still at large and is wanted by the Agency, his warehouse keeper, 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Forson Gordon, was arrested.
Ibrahim Momoh was first arrested on November 27, 2014, with the same substance weighing 385.1kg, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on April 22, 2020, but escaped from jail after only three months.
Meanwhile, no fewer than 2,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were seized in a commercial bus by operatives on Friday, December 2, along Lokoja – Abuja expressway.
On Saturday December 3, operatives arrested a 29-year-old pregnant woman, Kate Ibinabo with 34.4kg cannabis sativa in Okrika area of Rivers state.
The Chairman, NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, has however directed that the woman be granted administrative bail pending when she’s delivered of her baby and thereafter return for prosecution. According to him, she had already entered the ninth month of pregnancy at the time of her arrest.
In Ondo state, 241 bags of the psychoactive substance with a gross weight of 3,133kg were recovered from a building at Ilale Cashew, Ehinogbe, Owoon on November 29.
Writing by Fany Olumoye