In advance of the inauguration of the new administration across the nation on May 29, agents of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency claimed to have stopped a shipment of 32 IEDs from being delivered to a bandit camp in Niger State, which borders the Federal Capital Territory.
Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retired), the head of the anti-drug agency, has subsequently ordered the military to take custody of Musa Muhammadu, a suspect who was found with the explosives on Monday, May 22, along Wawa road in Kainji, Niger state.
The NDLEA’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, announced the news on Sunday in a statement that our reporter was able to get.
In part, the statement states, “As the NDLEA steps up operations at drug joints and routes across the nation ahead of May 29 inauguration of new administrations throughout the country, its operatives have intercepted a consignment of 32 pieces of IEDs, being taken to bandits camp in Niger state.”
Meanwhile, agents from the NDLEA’s Directorate of Operations and General Investigation in Lagos have discovered a shipment of 379 grammes of methamphetamine hidden in the false bottom of six black soap containers, packed in a carton with local hand fans, and destined for Cyprus in Europe.
“In Adamawa State, operatives on stop and search patrol along Michika- Bazza road on Friday, May 26, arrested a Cameroonian, Ndawai Ngalou, with a pair of Nigerian Army camouflage uniform bearing ‘Sunday U’ and two ATM cards belonging to one Turaki Mohammed and Ekene Izuegunam,” Babafemi stated.
Two women, Bilkisu Yusuf, 33, and Kauna Katsina, 25, were detained on May 22 in Ningi, Bauchi state, with 11,080 tramadol pills, while Uche Shadrach, 22, was detained on May 24 on the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi state, while en route from Onitsha, Anambra state, to Minna, Niger state, with 20,480 pills of the same pharmaceutical opioid.
He added that two suspects, Surajo Adamu and Muhammad Ali, were detained on Friday, May 26, in the Lagos neighbourhood of Alimosho with 379,200 Diazepam tablets, and that on Thursday, May 25, the Nigeria Customs Service’s Airport command turned over to the MMIA command of the agency 22 cartons of Tramadol 225 mg and 12 cartons of Tramadol 120 mg, each containing 2, 317,400 pills.
On May 24, NDLEA agents raided the notorious Abbi town in Delta state with help from members of the Nigerian Army, NSCDC, and police. Three suspects—Eunice Eneh, 52, Animan Ifeoma, 26, and Chuks Webema Dennis, 35—were detained, and 343.9 kg of cannabis was found on them.
“A similar mop-up operation in Bayelsa has led to the arrest of a wanted suspect, Ozoemena Egbochue, 38, at the Swali market in Yenagoa on Monday, May 22, following the earlier arrest of his sales boy, Morgan Eredeowei with 11,748 pills of tramadol and diazepam,” continued Babafemi.
