 [SAHARAREPORTERS] Nigeria's anti-narcotics agency, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has announced the arrest of a 40-year-old businessman, Ejike Chibuke Solomon.
Solomon was arrested with 1.45 kilograms of cocaine concealed in his luggage while attempting to board an Ethiopia Airlines flight 950 to Vietnam via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
A statement issued on Sunday by NDLEA's Director of Media & Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said Ejike was intercepted by operatives of the agency at the Abuja airport on Saturday, March 2, 2024.
Babafemi said that NDLEA officers subjected the suspect to a thorough search, and in the process, the illicit substance was discovered.
He said the substance was concealed in the suspect’s bag.
"In his statement, the suspect claimed he was on a business trip to Vietnam," the statement said.
The NDLEA's spokesman also disclosed that its special unit operatives on Friday swooped on members of a syndicate that deals in methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in their hideouts in parts of Lagos.
During the operation, he said the operatives raided the home of Esimone Amachukwu Christopher at 14 Arochukwu Street, Ejigbo, where 10.012 kilograms of methamphetamine was found in possession of his associate, 40-year-old Evelyn Nneka Okem.
"Esimone is currently at large," the statement said.
He added, "While the Ejigbo operation was going on, another set of officers were simultaneously busy in the residence of another member of the syndicate, 45-year-old Ebele Edwin Iwuegbunam, located at Plot 1604 Close D, 4th Avenue, FESTAC town, Lagos where they arrested him and recovered 429.5grams of cocaine and 7 kilograms of heroin.
Giving a breakdown of results of separate operations across the country in the week under review, Babafemi said, "In Kogi state, NDLEA officers on a stop and search operation along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway on Friday 1st March intercepted a commercial bus marked GRM 347XA (Borno) conveying 28 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 11kg; 100 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup and 500 tablets of diazepam, all concealed in three plastic drums covered with cattle fats, heading to Jos, Plateau state.
"While operatives in Ogun state on Thursday 29th February recovered 169kg consignment of cannabis abandoned in a truck at Sagamu tollgate, their counterparts in Lagos seized 25 cartons of tramadol containing 325,000 pills in Ikeja the previous day Wednesday 28th Feb. Same day, a suspect, Abdullahi Garba Khalil, 42, and 2,745,000 capsules of pregabalin recovered from him at Singer market, Sabon Gari area of Kano were handed over to the Kano state command of NDLEA by the Department of State Security, DSS.
"In the same vein, the 243 Recce Battalion, Nigerian Army, Badagry on Saturday 2nd March transferred 27 sacks of cannabis sativa weighing 1,110kg recovered at a coastal community, Ajido by soldiers, to the Seme Special Area Command of NDLEA. A suspect, Hassan Muhammad, 34, was on Saturday 2nd March arrested with 44,950 pills of tramadol at Moranti area of Borno state by NDLEA operatives."
The statement added, "In Abia state, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 28th Feb raided a drug joint at Cemetery Barracks, Aba, where Ifeanyi Uche, 37, was arrested with different quantities of cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. Another raid was carried out at the abandoned Eyimba Hotel, Ogbor Hill, Aba, where illicit substances were seized and suspects arrested on Friday 1st March.”
Meanwhile, NDLEA's spokesman, however, stated that while the agency continued to clamp down on drug traffickers, its various commands across the country had continued with the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA), advocacy campaign in the past week.
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