…Intercepts illicit consignment from China, seizes Dubai-bound ‘Loud’ hidden in ladies’ handbags, nabs wanted couple and 75-year-old grandmother in nationwide operations
By DANJUMA AMODU
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has uncovered an alarming drug distribution network targeting secondary school students, arresting two elderly men aged 84 and 75 for allegedly supplying illicit substances to teenagers in Abia State. The case has raised fresh concerns over the growing penetration of narcotics into Nigerian schools.
The anti-narcotics agency also intercepted a shipment of synthetic drugs from China, seized cannabis concealed in ladies’ handbags and destined for export, arrested a wanted couple linked to a major drug syndicate in Ekiti State, and apprehended a 75-year-old grandmother alongside two others during a massive cannabis bust in Oyo State.
The arrests and seizures, announced by NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi on Sunday, underscore what security experts describe as the increasingly sophisticated and disturbing dimensions of the country’s illicit drug trade, with elderly persons and schoolchildren now emerging as both distributors and victims.
“The increasing involvement of vulnerable groups, including schoolchildren and the elderly, highlights the urgent need for sustained enforcement and community-based interventions to stem the country’s growing drug menace.”
GRANDFATHERS ARRESTED IN ABIA
Particularly troubling was the arrest of 75-year-old Godwin Obiora, who was apprehended on Friday following intelligence reports that he had been selling illicit substances to young students and other users from his patent medicine store on Club Road in Umuahia, Abia State.
A search of his premises led to the recovery of 4.64 kilogrammes of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.
In a separate operation, 84-year-old pensioner Godfrey Orji was arrested after security personnel at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, caught him allegedly supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students within the school premises.
The school authorities subsequently handed the suspects over to the police, who transferred the matter to the NDLEA last Thursday.
One of the students, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School 2, SS2, pupil, reportedly confessed that Orji regularly supplied him with drugs, which he consumed and also sold to fellow students.
While the two elderly suspects are expected to be arraigned in court, the teenagers have been placed on counselling and rehabilitation programmes.
The latest revelations have heightened concerns about drug abuse among adolescents and the increasing exploitation of school environments by drug traffickers seeking to recruit young people into narcotics consumption and distribution networks.
LARGE SEIZURES IN LAGOS, KOGI
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives intercepted a consignment of ADB Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid classified among dangerous new psychoactive substances, at a courier company. The shipment, which originated from China, weighed 9.5 kilogrammes and was concealed in a carton.
The agency also discovered 300 grammes of ‘Loud’, a highly potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside ladies’ handbags at another logistics company in the state.
In another operation in Lagos, officers raided the residence of a wanted drug dealer, Lukman Badmus, also known as Lukman Ogombo, in the Ogombo area of Ajah, recovering bottles of codeine syrup and quantities of skunk.
A follow-up operation at the shop of his wife, Aisha Saraki, on Lagos Island led to the recovery of additional codeine syrup, drug paraphernalia and 42 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 22.5 kilogrammes concealed in a minibus parked in front of the premises.
The NDLEA said attempts by the woman to dispose of some of the exhibits by flushing them down a toilet were foiled by operatives.
Along the Okene-Lokoja Highway in Kogi State, officers intercepted 33-year-old Tochukwu Onah, who was travelling from Lagos to Abuja with 1.03 kilogrammes of methamphetamine concealed inside custard containers.
WANTED COUPLE, GRANDMOTHER NABBED
In Ekiti State, the agency finally apprehended a couple, James Chukwudi, 48, and James Kehinde, 35, who had been on the run since March in connection with the seizure of 117 kilogrammes of skunk.
In Oyo State, NDLEA operatives arrested 75-year-old Tudun Olubiyi and two other suspects after raiding a house in the Dangote area of Elekara, Oyo Town, where 118 jumbo bags containing 1,416 kilogrammes of skunk hidden under sawdust were recovered.
CANNABIS FARMS DESTROYED IN EDO
In Edo State, operatives raided the Khagba forest in Owan East Local Government Area, destroying more than 1.7 tonnes of cannabis and recovering an additional 169 kilogrammes of processed substances. Another operation at Ebora Camp in Esan South Local Government Area led to the destruction of over 2.4 tonnes of cannabis.
A suspect, Augustine Anyamone, was also arrested with 395 kilogrammes of skunk in a separate operation.
WADA CAMPAIGN CONTINUES
Beyond enforcement activities, the NDLEA said its commands and formations nationwide continued implementing its War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, campaign through sensitisation programmes in schools, communities, workplaces and traditional institutions across Ekiti, Kano, Nasarawa, Katsina, Anambra and Rivers states.
Commending the officers involved in the operations, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (rtd), said the successes demonstrated the agency’s determination to simultaneously reduce drug supply and intensify preventive education.
He urged officers across the country not to relent in the fight against narcotics trafficking, warning that the increasing involvement of vulnerable groups, including schoolchildren and the elderly, highlights the urgent need for sustained enforcement and community-based interventions to stem the country’s growing drug menace.
