By Emma Njoku
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have raided a hotel in Abuja where drugs were sold and young ladies camped for commercial sex.
At least, four persons; three ladies and a man, were arrested when the drug joint, JAT Suites, located at 30 Lobito Crescent, Wuse 2, was raided and some quantity of Rohynol and paraphernalia for smoking crack cocaine were recovered on Wednesday, September, 22, 2021.
Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, in a statement, yesterday, said “investigations revealed that the hotel is operated without requisite approvals in a high profile neighbourhood and patronised by call girls while the bar serves as the spot to smoke and sell drugs to the young girls and their customers.”
Babafemi disclosed that the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd) has directed the FCT Command and the Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigations of the agency “to do all within the law, to ensure the property is forfeited to the federal government, to serve as a deterrent to others who allow their premises to be used for drug dealing.”
Also, one Ms. Ozigbo Joy Nneka was arrested at NAHCO Export Shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, while trying to export packs of codeine tablets weighing 15.15kg to the United Kingdom, last Wednesday. A day earlier, narcotic officers at the airport also arrested one Nwajindo Ndubuisi Emmanuel during inward clearance of Ethiopian Airline passengers at the E-arrival hall. Some bottles of codeine weighing 5.65kg were recovered from him.
At the same airport, a total of 150.30kg of khat was seized, on Monday, September 20, after six weeks of placing the consignment which arrived at SAHCO shed, on August 2, via Kenya Airways cargo flight, on surveillance.
In a related development, two female part one students of Edo State Polytechnic, Uzen, Babalola Modupe Angel (19) and Esekhagbe Sonia (20) were arrested, on Thursday, September 23, with 21 wraps of skunk, while another lady, Chioma Okocha, 25, was arrested the following day, when she tried to deliver 200grams of Crack Cocaine to a customer at an eatery in Benin. Earlier same day, men of the Irrua Area Command of the agency, working on actionable intelligence, evacuated 10 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 135kg, in Amahor bush in the Igueben area. The exhibits were stored ready for transportation to other parts of the country.
In the same vein, men of the Okada Area Command in the early hours of yesterday evacuated 2,937 kilograms of cannabis sativa from Utese forest in Ovia North East local government area of Edo state.
In Kaduna state, Mrs. Fatima Musa, a widow and notorious drug dealer, was arrested on Saturday, September 18, at Afana village, in Zango Kataf LGA, while moving 12kg of cannabis to Jos. She had earlier been convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment on July 7, 2020, following her arrest on March 3, 2020, with 45kg of cannabis sativa.
While commending the officers and men of the FCT, MMIA, Edo and Kaduna Commands of the agency for the raids, arrests and seizures in the past week, Gen. Marwa urged them not to rest on their oars until the menace of drug trafficking and abuse is reduced to the barest minimum in every part of the country.