A drug kingpin wanted for attempting to smuggle illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom tops the list of arrests made by NDLEA agents during interdiction operations that resulted in the seizure of four tons of illicit drugs in the last week.
Obiorah Chigozie Samuel has been on the Agency’s wanted list since September 15th, 2023, when a consignment of 1.500kg skunk concealed in flour bound for London, UK was intercepted at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos, and his freight agent, Nworah Adaugo Precious, was arrested.
Obiorah went into the Agency’s dragnet on Thursday 28th September, personally bringing another tranche of 2.00kg disguised in cartons to the airport for shipping to the UK, convinced that the 1.500kg consignment had passed through. Obiorah said in his interview that he used to sell shoes in Lagos before getting into the illegal narcotics trade.
Meanwhile, agents from the Agency’s Federal Capital Territory Command apprehended a container truck with the registration number BD G41 XM traveling from Lagos to Kano on Friday, September 29th, in the Gwagwalada region of the FCT. The vehicle and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, were both detained when 1,188 kg of skunk were discovered disguised behind cartons of tooth paste.
Similarly, on Wednesday, September 27th, NDLEA agents in Bayelsa state confiscated 432kgs of the same material from an abandoned J5 bus along Saipem road, Opolo, Yenagoa. The vehicle was also collected from the scene and will be investigated further.
In Kano, a septuagenarian grandfather, Ado Mai Unguwa, 70, was detained with 143.2kgs of skunk in Dindere village, Tofa LGA, on Saturday 30th September, while operatives in Enugu recovered 110.6kgs of the same material from a locked-up shop at Aria new market the same day.
On Saturday, September 30th, agents in Lagos invaded the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin, seizing 212.5kgs of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug boss. This comes as NDLEA police in Kwara state recovered 104kgs of skunk from a Toyota Camry car in the state’s Offa area, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was apprehended with 11.8kgs of the same material on Monday, September 25th, at the Mafa checkpoint in Borno state.
In Plateau, the state police command in the spirit of inter-agency collaboration transferred four suspects: Yusuf Akim; Frank Gah; Jackson Ejeh and Joseph Utsu, and 1,978kgs cannabis recovered from them to the state command of NDLEA, while in Cross River, operatives on Monday 25th September seized 40,000 ampules of pentazocine injection from two suspects: Fajulugbe Adeshola Temitayo, 35, and Nnaorji Agwe Solomon, 54, at Mobil by MCC road, Calabar.
In Kogi state, NDLEA operatives detained Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, on Wednesday, September 27th, with 59,867 pills of opiates, including Tramadol, and 4.03kgs cannabis sativa in the Idah region of the state.
Advocacy events for the War on Drugs, or WADA, have been ongoing across the country for the previous week. Some of them include: WADA advocacy visit to the Director/CEO, Nigeria French Village, Badagry, Lagos, Prof. Lateef Babatunde Ayeleru by the Seme Special Area command of NDLEA; WADA sensitisation lecture at Ar-Rahmania College of Health Sciences, Minna, Niger state; WADA advocacy lecture at Pentecostal Academy, Aba, Abia state and WADA sensitisation lecture for students and staff of School of Nursing, Eket, Akwa Ibom state among others.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA’s Lagos, FCT, Bayelsa, Borno, Kogi, Kwara, Cross River, Borno, and Enugu Commands for the recent arrests and seizures, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), also praised their counterparts in all commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply and drug demand reduction efforts.
