NDLEA Foils Attempt To Export Methamphetamine, Skunk In Murtala Muhammed International Airport In Ikeja

By Hannah Nathan, Warri

Officials of the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA have successfully foiled transnational drug trafficking organizations’ attempts to export methamphetamine and skunk through Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja by Lagos courier services.

The agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who made the announcement, stated that on Tuesday, September 12, NDLEA agents at the Lagos airport detained Ugwu Peter Tochukwu as he attempted to board a Qatar Airways flight to travel to Oman with drugs.

It was gathered that when his luggage was thoroughly searched, 7.50 kg of skunk were found hidden inside crayfish that had been combined with dried bitter leaf.

Also,2.9 kilograms of skunk and 14 grams of methamphetamine that were headed for Dubai were maintained by the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations affiliated with several courier businesses.

The contraband was hidden in Semovita bags and the soles of women’s high-heeled shoes, respectively.

On September 13, agents patrolling the Aba-Owerri expressway in Imo State detained five teenage girls who were pregnant and thought to be the victims of child trafficking utilized as womb factories.

He claimed that they were apprehended when they were being moved from their hiding place in the Naze neighbourhood of Owerri to the Ikenegbu neighbourhood of the state capital.

The victims are Chioma Emmanuel, Uma Faith, Divine Adimonye, Opara Gift, and Amarachi Mbata, all of whom
are 15 years old.

They claimed in their statements that they were unaware of the males who had become pregnant. Since then, it has been ordered that the agency’s Imo State headquarters turn them over to NapTip, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, for additional research.

While two suspects, Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were detained on Tuesday, September 11 at Ikebe Village in the Ankpa LGA of Kogi State with 227.1 kg of cannabis, a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was detained on Saturday, September 16 in the Ifo region of Ogun State with 108 kg of the same substance.
The two suspects have been linked to a total of 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55 kg and 600 bottles of syrup with codeine that were taken from Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday, September 11, along Abuja Road.

Yusuf Ali and Muntari Nasiru, who were detained during follow-up operations in Kano, On Tuesday, September 11, along the Lokogoma-Abuja route, a 27-year-old man named Kingsley Chimaobi was detained with 6,000 bottles of syrup with a codeine base.

Drug dealer Segun Odeyemi received a five-year prison term in September for smuggling 3,842 kg of skunk.

He was detained on Saturday, July 1st, as he drove his truck in the Eleganza neighbourhood of Ajah, Lekki carrying 89 giant bags of illegal material.

After that, he was charged in the case FHC/L/388C/2023, which was heard by Justice Akintayo Aluko.

The agency’s War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization operations have continued around the nation over the past week, taking advocacy messages to stakeholders.
Examples of these include a WADA advocacy visit to Sheikh Qaribullah Nasiru Kabara, the leader of the Kadiria Islamic Sect of Africa, in Kano; a WADA sensitization lecture for members of the Nigerian Army at Sobi Barracks in Ilorin; a talk for the Muslim community in Kaduna; and more.

Among others, WADA sensitization lectures were given in the Enugu State College of Health and Technology, Oji-River, for members of the Ram Sellers Association, Osogbo, and at the Nigerian Navy School of Music, Ota, Ogun State.

Brig. Gen. Mohamed, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, praised the officers and personnel of the MMIA, Imo, Kaduna, Ogun, Kogi, FCT, and Lagos Commands as well as those of DOGI for stepping up their drug control operations.