Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 67-year-old alleged trafficker, Chukwuemeka Clement, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine.
Chukwuemeka who was arrested on Tuesday during the inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, claimed he ventured into the enterprise to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh after wasting 30 years of his life in Brazil, Ethiopia and Thailand.
He was arrested after body scan revealed multiple pellets in his stomach and subsequently when under observation excreted a total of 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.195 kilogrammes in four excretions.
According to the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, Chukwuemeka In his statement, claimed to have spent 30 years in Brazil, Ethiopia and Thailand, and was once married, but lost his wife and without a child. He added that was why he decided to go into drug trafficking to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh.
Babafemi said on he same day, Tuesday, NDLEA operatives at the Malam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, intercepted a 45-year-old woman, Bilkisu Mohammed Bello while preparing to board a Saudia Airlines flight to Saudi Arabia.
She confessed during interrogation that pellets of cocaine given to her to swallow before her flight were kept in a house in Farawa area of Kano.
When she later led NDLEA officers to the house, 52 wraps of the illicit substance with a total weight of 767 grammes were recovered.
Babafemi also revealed that NDLEA operatives supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps and Amotekun personnel last Tuesday stormed James village, in Ogunmakin, Obafemi Owode local government area of Ogun state where they located and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of cannabis sativa covering over 4.152 hectares.
He disclosed that while on their way back from the operation, the team also intercepted a truck marked FS548XN carrying a 40ft container loaded with logs of wood, noting that a search of the container led to the recovery of two bags of cannabis sativa weighing 20 kilogrammes while six suspects: Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan and Abdulazeez Saied, who were in the truck were arrested.
In the same vein, operatives on Sunday 1st October raided Obi camp in Owan West local government area of Edo state where 30 sacks of skunk weighing 300 kilogrammes and concealed in charcoal were evacuated from an old dilapidated mud house. Similarly, two cannabis farms measuring 1.179065 hectares at Igbanke forest in Orhiowon local government area of the state were identified and destroyed last Friday while four suspects: Tersoo Zaria, 28; Ifeanyi Osai, 53; Moses David, 19, and Daniel Gabriel, 20, were arrested.
In Gombe state, a suspect, Auwal Bindow was arrested last Friday along Bauchi – Gombe road with 50,000 capsules of tramadol, while in Oyo state, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway nabbed Anuoluwapo Iyanu, 32, with 52 blocks of compressed pawpaw shaped cannabis sativa weighing 30 kilogrammes last Wednesday.
The statement further disclosed that the various commands of the agency across the country continued with the War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, advocacy campaign in the past week. Some of task undertaken include: WADA sensitisation lecture for students and teachers of Igbonnibi High School, Ila Orangun, Osun state; WADA sensitisation lecture at Royal Ambassador Secondary School, Makurdi, Benue state; WADA sensitization lecture at Ilora Baptist Grammar School, Ilora, Oyo state and LGA WADA sensitisation lecture for students of Beth-Root Model Secondary School, Onitsha, Anambra state.
Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) While commending the officers and men of the NAIA, MAKIA, Ogun, Oyo, Edo, and Gombe Commands of the agency for their outstanding feats in the past week, equally applauded their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures thus creating a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
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