NDLEA estimated that 14.3 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64 abuse drugs, representing about 14.4% of the population. Photo: NDLEA
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have apprehended a 29-year-old South African man, Erasmus Jean-Pierre, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The man was detained as he attempted to export 2.6 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in his luggage to the Middle East.
The NDLEA intercepted him during the outward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight ET 404 from Abuja to the Middle East via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Following a thorough search of his luggage, a whitish powdery illicit substance, factory-packed, was discovered in separate parts of the said bag, According to NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi.
Mr Babafemi said preliminary investigation revealed that Mr Jean-Pierre arrived Lagos through Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on Saturday, August 19, came to Abuja on Tuesday, August 22, and took possession of the brown bag containing the consignment of drugs on Wednesday, August 23, before heading to the Abuja airport for his flight out of Nigeria.
The NDLEA Spokesman also gave a break down of other arrests.
In Gombe state, operatives on patrol along Darazo road recovered an abandoned Volkswagen Sharon vehicle marked GME 76 XD containing a total of 373,420 pills of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.
Also, operatives in Ogun state raided the home of a drug dealer, Ifeanyi Orji, in Ibafo area of the state, where 81,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg, weighing 32.4kgs were recovered.
In Adamawa state, NDLEA officers on Tuesday, August 22, recovered 60,000 pills of tramadol from a suspect, Ibrahim Abba, 25, who was travelling in a commercial Toyota Starlet car from Kalaa village to Mubi, while in Abuja the Federal Capital Territory, other operatives intercepted two consignments of skunk with a gross weight of 1,242.1 kilograms.
The first consignment of 665.1kgs was seized from a truck around Area 3 on Sunday, August 20, while the second one, weighing 577kgs, was recovered during a stop-and-search operation along Lokoja- Abaji expressway, same day.
The consignment was concealed in Jumia goods delivery packs inside a container Mercedes truck, whose driver, Yusuf Yakubu Asokomhe, and his assistant, Tunde Ogundare, were arrested.
Writing by Nosa Aituamen; Editing by Hadiza Abdulrahman, Daniel Adejo and Tony Okerafor