By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
Three sexagenarian grandfathers and a Nigerien top the list of suspects arrested in connection with the seizure of over 52.252Kg of cocaine, methamphetamine, and skunk as well as 32,590 pills of opioids in Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Sokoto and two courier companies by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in the last one week.
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have seized over 52.252Kg of cocaine, methamphetamine, skunk and 32,590 pills of opioids in Lagos, Kwara, Plateau, Sokoto and two courier companies.
Those arrested in connection with the seizure are three sexagenarian grandfathers and a Nigerien.
The agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, explained that Onyebi Chimaobi, the first suspect, frequents Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Uganda and has been on NDLEA’s watchlist, was arrested on February 18, 2023, apprehended in connection with the seizure of 19.70Kg cocaine abandoned in an Ethiopian airline flight that arrived Lagos airport on Thursday, February 9 at Victory Estate, Iba, Ojo area of Lagos.
According to the statement, Chimaobi had travelled to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to pick up the consignment, which he claimed was handed over to him in a black backpack bag on the plane in Addis Ababa but failed to disembark with it on arrival in Lagos.
The statement added that while the agency continues to investigate the flight crew members, relevant intelligence and investigative tools were deployed to identify the passenger who brought the consignment to Nigeria as a result of which Chimaobi was eventually unravelled and traced to Victory Estate, Iba where he was arrested.
The two other sexagenarians, according to the statement were arrested in connection with drug trafficking include Butven Siman, 62, who was nabbed with 5.5Kg skunk on Friday, 17th February at Timbol village, Langtang South Local Government Area of Plateau State, adding that 65-year-old Musa Shuaib was arrested with a kilogramme of cannabis on Thursday, February 23 in Adewole area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.
The statement stressed that the NDLEA operatives intercepted an intending passenger on a Turkish Airline flight to Torino via Milan, Italy, Obazee Eguagie, at the departure hall of the Lagos airport with various quantities of opioids.
The consignment were concealed inside cloths, according to the statement and wrapped with black tapes consisting a total of 22, 840 tablets of Tramadol 225mg weighing 10.60 kg; 1,000 tablets of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 600 grams; 2,300 capsules of Tramadol 100mg, weighing 800 grams and 60 tablets of Rohypnol 1mg, weighing 19 grams.
The agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, further explained that the operatives attached to the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc’s import shed of the airport also intercepted eight cartons of shoes coming from Los Angeles, United States of America.
He added that a diligent examination of the cargo however showed that the shoes were used to conceal a total of 37 parcels of Loud variant of Cannabis with a gross weight of 20.10Kg, saying that a 63-year-old grandfather, Balogun Abideen, hired as a freight agent to clear the illicit consignment has already been arrested.
The statement explained, “At two major courier companies in Lagos, a total of 4.292Kg of psychoactive drugs including Methamphetamine, Tramadol, Lexaton, and Swindon concealed in walls of cartons, picture frames, bathing soap packs and bed sheets were recovered from parcels going to United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia by officers of the NDLEA Directorate of Operations and General Investigation attached to the logistics firms.”
In Sokoto State, the statement said that operatives at the Illela land border intercepted a Nigerien, Bashar Abdu of Kwanni, Niger Republic with 1.460Kg of skunk wrapped around his private part, while in Kaduna, a suspect, Mohammed Garba a.k.a Alfazazi, was arrested with 6,390 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, weighing 3.4kgs along Abuja-Kaduna express road.
