No fewer than 10 persons have been confirmed dead, while three others sustained injuries in a lone crash involving a Mitsubishi bus on the Ijebu-Ode–Ibadan Expressway.

Mr Babatunde Akinbiyi, spokesperson for the Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps (TRACE) in Ogun, confirmed the incident in a statement on Sunday.

Akinbiyi said the accident occurred at about 8:30 p.m. on Friday at Ome Bridge, Awa, along Ijebu-Ode–Ibadan highway in Ijebu North Local Government Area.

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He stated that the lone crash involved a Mitsubishi bus, registration number EJ829-LSR, which was conveying 15 passengers at the time.

According to Akinbiyi, seven male and three female passengers died. Three others were injured, while a toddler and one adult escaped unhurt.

He said preliminary findings indicate that overspeeding and wrongful overtaking led to the accident.

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“Eyewitnesses said the driver wrongly overtook another vehicle at high speed and could not regain control after noticing an oncoming vehicle.

“The driver veered off the road, hit an abandoned gravel pile beside the bridge, and plunged the vehicle into the river,” Akinbiyi explained.

He said the deceased were taken to Ijebu-Ode General Hospital’s morgue, while the injured were also being treated at the same facility.

The spokesperson urged motorists to avoid speeding and to refrain from travelling at night, stressing the importance of road safety at all times.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said on Sunday that it has intercepted a total of 52 pieces of travelers’ cheques concealed in children’s books worth $17.7 17.7million.

The cheques, according to a statement issued by the NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in Abuja, were en route to Malaysia through Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight.

Babafemi, however, stated that NDLEA operatives intercepted the cheques at the airport’s export shed on July 4.

He stated that the interdiction operation, which took place at Lagos airport, resulted in the arrest of a freight agent in connection with the intercepted travelers’ cheques.

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“The travelers cheques suspected to be counterfeit and the suspect will soon be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation,” he said.

He said that on July 5, NDLEA officers at the Seme border recovered 718 big balls of skunk weighing 359 kg from a store in the Baba–Pupa area of the border community.

Operatives on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja highway intercepted 10,000 pills of tramadol 225mg and co-codamol as well as 1.050kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis.

This, he said, led to the arrest of owners of the way-billed drug consignments at Jabi Park in Abuja during a follow-up operation.

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Babafemi said in another development in Osun, two suspects were arrested at the Ajegunle area of Osogbo on July 3 with 13,901 pills and ampoules of different opioids recovered from them.

He said that another suspect was nabbed at a patent medicine shop at Arubidi Street, Ile-Ife, with 48,205 pills of opioids.

“A raid on a vulcaniser workshop at Akindeko junction, Alekuwodo area of Osogbo on Tuesday, July 1, led to the arrest of three suspects.

“They were arrested with 1,250 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 850 pills of tramadol and three bottles of codeine-based syrup.”

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The spokesman stated that the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) and social advocacy activities by the NDLEA commands continued across the country equally in the past week.

“Some of them include: WADA sensitisation lecture delivered to students and staff of Queen of Angel Secondary School, Mgbidi, Awgu, Enugu state, Divine Purpose College, Eyita, Ikorodu, Lagos.

“Others are Al-Furqan College, Kankia, Katsina and residents of Gomari Binta Suga community, Maiduguri, Borno state, among others.”

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has destroyed 24,175 kilograms of skunk on 9.67 hectares of cannabis farmland at Ikaka, Oke-Ila forest, Osun.

The Director of Media and Advocacy at the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, stated this in a press release on Sunday in Abuja.

Babafemi said that NDLEA operatives had raided the area where seven suspects were arrested on July 3.
In another development, in Borno, 167kg of skunk was recovered at Gamboru-Ngala, while a total of 452 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance was seized at Gadar Tamburawa in Kano.

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Babafemi said that two suspects were arrested in connection with the seizure on July 3.

He said NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Abuja-Kaduna expressway recovered 11,000 pills of tramadol 225mg from a suspect. In comparison, their counterparts in Sokoto arrested a 62-year-old in connection with the seizure of 4,800 pills of tramadol 225mg.

“In Kebbi state, operatives raided Bakin Kasuwa Yauri base, where they seized 312 kg of skunk and 10,000 tabs of diazepam. At the same time, two suspects were also arrested with 49,930 capsules of tramadol in Taraba state.

“In Edo state, NDLEA operatives raided the Ewere forest in Owan West LGA where they arrested a wanted suspect, Alaba Monday, 49, in one of his cannabis farms with 115 kg of processed skunk.”

He stated that three other suspects were apprehended on another farm, which measures 2.050201 hectares.

According to him, a 78-year-old suspect was arrested with 14.49kg of skunk and tramadol during a raid by NDLEA operatives at Ofudua, Obubra LGA, Cross River. In contrast, three other suspects were nabbed at Ovonum, Obubra LGA.