The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency on Sunday said it arrested an ex-Boko Haram fighter, Alayi Madu, and the traditional ruler of Kajola, a border community between Ondo and Edo states, Baale Akinola Adebayo, for drug trafficking.

The PUNCH reports that as part of ongoing operations to mop up illicit drugs across the country ahead of the next round of elections, NDLEA officers in the early hours of Friday, March 10, stormed Kajola forest in Kajola community, where they destroyed three cannabis farms measuring 39.801546 hectares.

The owner of the farms who claims to be the Ba’ale of Kajola, Akinola Adebayo, 35, was arrested on the farm at 2:30 am, while two other suspects believed to be his workers Arikuyeri Abdulrahman, 23, and Habibu Ologun, 25, were also nabbed in a hut near the farms.

The Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed these in a statement obtained by The PUNCH on Sunday.

In the same vein, a 26-year-old Alayi Madu, who was a Boko Haram fighter for 15 years before he surrendered to the Nigerian military in 2021, was intercepted by NDLEA operatives on Thursday, March 9 along Abuja-Kaduna express road with 10 kilograms of skunk, which he said he bought in Ibadan, Oyo State and was taking the consignment concealed in a sack to Maiduguri, Borno State.

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Babafemi said, “In his statement, Madu said he is from Banki town, Borno State and joined the notorious terrorist organisation in 2006 when he was nine years old. He said he repented and surrendered to the military in 2021, after which he underwent rehabilitation and de-radicalisation processes at Umaru Shehu rehabilitation centre, Maiduguri and Malam Sidi de-radicalization centre, Gombe before he was discharged after spending six months.

“Thereafter, he travelled to Ibadan, Oyo State where he worked as commercial motorcycle rider (Okada rider) before going into drug trafficking, and was eventually arrested along Abuja-Kaduna express road.”

Meanwhile, at the Lagos airport in Ikeja, operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a consignment of 11.90 kilograms of heroin and 500grams of skunk concealed in deep freezers, which were part of a cargo that arrived from South Africa on Tuesday, March 7 onboard Ethiopian Airline via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Babafemi noted that the anti-narcotics agency’s sniffer dogs were deployed to locate where the illicit drugs were hidden in the cargo and in no time they identified the cartons packed in the deep freezers.

He added, “A total of four suspects that played active roles in the movement of the drugs and a truck driver have been arrested so far in connection with the seizure. They include Dairo Quam, Oluwaseun Ogunmene, Adeleke Abdulrasaq, Bamidele Adewale and Oluwafemi Ogunmeru.”

Also, NDLEA operatives attached to the Gate C departure hall of the MMIA on Thursday, March 9 intercepted a passenger, Aigbedion Philomena heading to Italy via Addis Ababa on an Ethiopian Airline flight.

When her bags containing body cream, hair attachments, drinks and some food items were searched, a total of 1.20kg tramadol capsules concealed inside gift wrapping sheets and covered with old daily newspapers were discovered.

On the same day at the Idiroko land border, NDLEA operatives acting on intelligence intercepted a commercial Toyota Camry salon car with reg. number JJJ 756 HB (Lagos) along Ilase-Akoko road, Idiroko with 34 compressed jumbo-size wraps of imported skunk weighing 17kg and concealed in two cooking gas cylinders. Two suspects in the car, Benjamin Ajose, 48 and Oluwatobiloba Ajayi, 37, were arrested.

The spokesperson for the NDLEA further added that in Akwa Ibom state, Mrs Iniobong David, 42, was arrested with bags of cannabis sativa weighing 1,112kg (1.1 tons) in her house at Ediene Abak in Abak LGA, while operatives in Kogi state on Thursday, March 9 recovered 25 cartons, containing 50,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection weighing 200kg in a Toyota Hiace bus marked LAM 652 LG, Kogi, travelling from Lagos to Abuja.

Also, in Ogun State, operatives arrested a female drug dealer, Bola Egbebi in Ota LGA, with different quantities of Cannabis Sativa, Methamphetamine, Tramadol 225, Skuchies, Molly and Codeine cough syrup, while in Gombe state, another female drug dealer, Fatima Hassan a.k.a Boss was arrested on Saturday, March 11 in her house at New Mile 3 area of Akko LGA with three and a half blocks of skunk weighing 3.245kg.

Two other female drug dealers, Folake Ladipo and Adeola Babatunde, were arrested with 49.5kg skunk on Friday, March 10 in the Mushin area of Lagos state.

Babafemi added that in Kwara, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Ilorin-Jebba highway on Tuesday, March 7 arrested two suspects Ismaila Saidu and Dahiru Abdullahi with 50 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 578 kilograms, while in the Federal Capital Territory, 15 suspects were transferred by the Nigerian Army with 35 bags of cannabis weighing 384.3kg.

He noted that a 56-year-old suspect, Shinayemà Kelenku, was arrested at Tse-kelenku village, Logo LGA, Benue with 36.7kg skunk, while in Delta State, operatives intercepted a suspect, Chimeze Ndukaire, 56, conveying psychotropic substances worth over N30 million in a white Toyota Hiace bus with registration number Lagos FST 279 XS coming from Onitsha to Warri.

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The vehicle was intercepted on Friday, March 10 at G.S.M junction, Asaba based on a tip-off.

Recovered from the bus include 267.3 litres of codeine (2,673 bottles); 25,110 pills of tramadol and other opioids.

Meanwhile, in Kano State, NDLEA operatives on Saturday, March 11 raided the Sabon-gari area of Kano where they arrested a suspect, Chukwuebuka Christopher, and recovered from him 7,740 bottles of codeine-based syrup, measuring 774 litres, concealed inside 43 sacks of garlic.
PUNCH