The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it has arrested two, drug dealers, Martins Okwor Ejiofor, 31, and Bala Mohammed 33, with a total of 24.450 kilograms of assorted substances meant to be delivered in Gwada, Shiroro Local Government of Niger State, where bandits in neighbouring forest buy their illicit drugs. Gwada has one of the two functional markets bordering the forest where bandits and kidnappers hibernate in Niger State.
NDLEA Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said the drugs seized from the suspects include Codeine – 7.100kg, Diazepam – 6.400kg and Exol 5 – 10.950kg. Kwara State NDLEA Command’s Highway Patrol Team along Okolowo (Ilorin) – Jebba Highway intercepted the consignment in a Hiace bus, with registration number: Niger 14 B.40NG, belonging to Niger State Transport Authority on Saturday, June 5, 2021.
He said Ejiofor had travelled to Lagos with the second suspect to procure the drugs and deliver them to dealers in Gwada. During interrogation, he confessed that he had been arrested with over 50 kilograms of cannabis sativa and charged to Court by the Niger State Command of the Agency in 2020.
Babafemi further disclosed that Ejiofor completed his one-year jail term in March this year only to resume his nefarious illicit drug business.
Meanwhile, one other suspect, Usman Abass, 38, was arrested with 6.8kg cannabis sativa concealed in a sack containing used clothes, which the suspect bought at Alaba International Market, in Lagos. The suspect upon interrogation claimed that one Baba gave him the exhibit to deliver to one Lawali in Daura, Katsina State before his arrest by a team of the Command’s operatives attached to Jebba Area Command during a routine stop and search operation. The suspect confessed that he had transported cannabis sativa once to Katsina and that the latest trip was his second.
The previous day, Friday, June 4, operatives of the Delta State Command of the agency arrested 20-year-old Chukwujeku Lucky, at Ogwashi Uku, Delta State, with multiple drugs weighing 38.90 kilograms. Some of the drugs seized from his apartment, where he serves as a salesman, include: 68 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 38.7kg; 498 pinches of cocaine (50.9 grams); 33 pinches of heroin (4.4 grams); 304 capsules of Tramadol (91grams); 72 tablets of Swinol (27 grams), and 26 grams of Methamphetamine.
While commending the Commanders, officers and men of both Kwara and Delta state Commands for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), said the development would, in no small measure, reduce the availability of illicit substances available to bandits and other criminal elements who take them as enhancers of their evil enterprise.
He charged them to remain vigilant and continue to acquaint themselves with the latest disingenuous modes of concealment and transportation of illicit drugs by defiant traffickers.
