From Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A 60-year-old grandmother and a pregnant woman were among those arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), during interdiction operations across five states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Meanwhile, the anti-drug agency has declared Abuja based drug lord, popularly known as Ibrahim Bendel, wanted. The agency recovered 5,527.15 kilograms of methamphetamine and cannabis sativa, as well as 132,090 tablets of tramadol and 2,000 bottles of codeine.
Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, noted that the grandma, Mrs. Ibinosun Sandra Esther, was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo State, in a follow up operation, following the seizure of 5.5kg Loud variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.
The consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter, was concealed in two giant speakers, as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived at the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos, on board an Air Peace Airline flight.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives, also, on Saturday, November 26, intercepted 1.4 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.
A cargo agent, Salako Omolara Fausat, who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian, who was to travel with the consignment were promptly arrested.
Another attempt by a freight agent, Adebisi Aina Hafsat, to export 3,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in motor spare parts to Banjul, Gambia, through the NAHCO export shed, was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and arrested her last Monday, while a follow up operation to the Ebute-Meta area of Lagos, the following day, led to the arrest of the actual owner, Afam Chibuke Stanley, who is a spare parts seller.
This was followed by the seizure of 100,000 tablets of the royal brand of tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 68.90 kilograms, imported from Karachi, Pakistan, on Ethiopian Airlines at the SAHCO import shed.
In Abuja, operatives stormed the warehouse of a notorious drug lord and an ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, alias ‘Ibrahim Bendel’, who escaped from prison custody to return to his criminal trade and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs.
Though the fleeing drug dealer is still at large and is wanted by the agency, his warehouse keeper, 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Forson Gordon, was arrested.
Ibrahim Momoh was first arrested on November 27, 2014 with the same substance weighing 385.1kgs, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on April 22, 2020, but escaped from jail after three months. Meanwhile, no fewer than 2,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup were seized in a commercial bus by operatives on Friday December 2, along Lokoja – Abuja Expressway.
In Rivers State, operatives last Saturday, arrested a 29-year-old pregnant woman, Kate Ibinabo, with 34.4kgs cannabis sativa in the Okrika area of the state.
The Chairman and Chief Executive, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Marwa (retd), has, however, directed that she be granted administrative bail, pending when she’s delivered of her baby and, thereafter, return for her prosecution because, at the time of her arrest, she’s in her ninth month of pregnancy.
In Ondo State, 241 bags of the psychoactive substance with a gross weight of 3,133kg, were recovered from a building at Ilale Cashew, Ehinogbe, Owo, last Tuesday. At least, 507.9kgs of cannabis were also seized during a raid at the hideout of a fleeing drug dealer in the Mushin area of Lagos last Thursday.
In Cross River, 53 jumbo bags of C/S weighing 567.05kgs were seized from three suspects: Bassey Boniface Eyibio, 38; Effiong Akiba Etim, 30, and Ngbong Raymond, 45, at Mpara junction, Odukpani LGA last Thursday, while conveying the consignment in a bus marked CKK 74 AA. Operatives equally arrested another suspect, Ali Mohammed along Potiskum- Damaturu road after they found 29,090 tablets of tramadol in his personal Honda car marked ABC 914 RW coming from Gombe to Damaturu, Yobe State.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Rivers, Ondo, Lagos, Cross River and Yobe Commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures, Gen. Marwa charged them and their counterparts across other formations to continue to step up their offensives against drug cartels.