Sunday Ejike – Abuja
A rehabilitated ex-fighter of the Boko Haram terror group, Alayi Madu and the traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo state, Baale Akinola Adebayo are among the 37 persons arrested over 2.2 tons of illicit drugs seized by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at Lagos Airport and in raids across 12 states in the past week.
As part of ongoing operations to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections, the Director, Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi said in a statement on Sunday that officers of the Agency, in the early hours of Friday, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola community, a border town between Edo and Ondo state where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares.
The owner of the farms who claims to be the Ba’ale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, was arrested on the farm at 2:30am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers: Arikuyeri Abdulrahman and Habibu Ologun were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.
In the same vein, the statement said, a 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021 was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on 9th March along Abuja-Kaduna express road with 10 kilograms of skunk, which he said, he bought in Ibadan, Oyo state and was taking the consignment concealed in a sack to Maiduguri, Borno state.
In his statement, Madu said he is from Banki town, Borno State and joined the notorious terrorist organisation, in 2006 when he was nine years old and that he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation and de-radicalisation processes at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre, Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalization centre, Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months.
Thereafter, he traveled to Ibadan, Oyo state where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking and his eventual arrest along Abuja-Kaduna express road.
At the Lagos airport, Babafemi said, operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a consignment of 11.90 kilograms of heroin and 500grams of skunk concealed in deep freezers, which were part of a cargo that arrived from South Africa on 7th March onboard Ethiopian airline via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Agency’s sniffer dogs were deployed to locate where the illicit drugs were hidden in the cargo and in no time, they identified the cartons packed in the deep freezers.
Babafemi said, a total of four suspects that played active roles in the movement of the drugs and a truck driver have been arrested so far in connection with the seizure. They include: Dairo Quam; Oluwaseun Ogunmene; Adeleke Abdulrasaq; Bamidele Adewale and Oluwafemi Ogunmeru.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives attached to the Gate C departure hall of the Lagos Airport, on 9th March intercepted a passenger, Aigbedion Philomena heading to Italy via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airline flight. When her bags containing body cream, hair attachments, drinks and some food items were searched, a total of 1.20kg tramadol capsules concealed inside gift wrapping sheet and covered with old daily newspapers were discovered.
At the Idiroko land border, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence on Thursday, intercepted a commercial Toyota Camry Salon Car with reg. number JJJ 756 HB (Lagos) along Ilase-Akoko road, Idiroko with 34 compressed jumbo size wraps of imported skunk weighing 17kg and concealed in two cooking gas cylinders. Two suspects in the car, Benjamin Ajose and Oluwatobiloba Ajayi were arrested.
In Akwa Ibom state, Mrs. Hope Iniobong David was arrested with bags of cannabis sativa weighing 1,112kg (1.1 tons) in her house at Ediene Abak in Abak LGA, while operatives in Kogi state on 9th March recovered 25 cartons, containing 50,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 200kg in a Toyota Hiace bus marked LAM 652 LG, Kogi, travelling from Lagos to Abuja.
Also, in Ogun state, operatives arrested a female drug dealer, Bola Egbebi in Ota LGA, with different quantities of Cannabis Sativa, Methamphetamine, Tramadol 225, Skuchies, Molly and Codeine cough syrup, while in Gombe state, another female drug dealer, Fatima Hassan (a.k.a Boss) was arrested on Saturday in her house at New Mile 3 area of Akko LGA with three and half blocks of skunk weighing 3.245kg.
Two other female drug dealers: Folake Ladipo and Adeola Babatunde were arrested with 49.5kg skunk on 10th March in Mushin area of Lagos state., while
in Kwara state, operatives on patrol along along Ilorin-Jebba highway on 7th March arrested two suspects: Ismaila Saidu and Dahiru Abdullahi with 50 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 578 kilograms.
In the Abuja, 15 suspects were transferred by the Nigerian Army with 35 bags of cannabis weighing 384.3kg and a 56-year-old suspect, Shinayemà Kelenku was arrested at Tse-kelenku village, Logo LGA, Benue with 36.7kg skunk, while in Delta state, operatives intercepted a suspect, Chimeze Ndukaire conveying psychotropic substances worth over N30 million in a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number Lagos FST 279 XS coming from Onitsha to Warri.
The vehicle was intercepted on Friday, 10th March at G.S.M junction, Asaba based on a tip-off.
Recovered from the bus include 267.3 litres of codeine (2,673 bottles); 25,110 pills of tramadol and other opioids and in Kano state, NDLEA operatives on Saturday raided the Sabon-gari area of Kano where they arrested a suspect, Chukwuebuka Christopher and recovered from him 7,740 bottles of Codeine based syrup, measuring 774 litres, concealed inside 43 sacks of garlic.
