27-year-old pregnant woman, Chioma Eze has been arrested with 1,442 kilogrammes of imported skunk, while four men, including 62-year-old, Basset Emmanuel, were arrested with 182,000 tablets of tramadol by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, who have raided two drug stores in Lagos.
Eze was arrested on Friday, December 17, 2021, when operatives raided her store and home in the Ojo area of Lagos. Another suspect, Michael Oroke, was also nabbed with 29kg of the illicit drug in the same location.
The NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday said that operatives equally raided a hideout in the Abule-Egba area of the state, where four suspects — Basset Emmanuel, Ezekwem Lawrence, Mohammed Aliyu, and Suwidi Isiaku — were arrested on December 16 with 182,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg.
Meanwhile, in similar raids across Rivers, Kogi, Benue, Adamawa, Anambra, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo states, over 4,000kg of assorted illicit drugs were seized.
Babafemi said, “On Saturday, December 18, during a routine stop and search exercise along the Aba/Port Harcourt Expressway, by Obigbo, operatives intercepted a consignment of tramadol in a commercial Toyota Hiace bus, with a waybill addressed to one Shadrach Udechukwu.
“A follow-up operation led to Udechukwu’s arrest and different quantities of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis sativa, tramadol, exol-5, swinol, and diazepam were recovered from him.
“In Kogi State, one Timi Sunday was arrested with 95.945kg of cannabis at Egba town, and Musa Sani with 10.5kg of cannabis along Okene-Lokoja highway, while Yaro Bala was arrested with 65kg of cannabis on the same road.
“No fewer than 20,000 capsules of tramadol coming from Onitsha, Anambra State, was seized in Otukpo, Benue, and a suspect arrested, while in Adamawa, a search operation in a house at Ajiya Street, Jimeta, led to the arrest of a female suspect, Maryam Yunusa, with 16 pinches of cocaine.
“A raid at Success Line, Marine Modern Market, Onitsha, led to the seizure of 234kg of cannabis and a suspect arrested, while in Edo State, Francis Eferi was arrested in Okpuje, Owan West LGA with 481kg of cannabis and Emmanuel Amu with 81kg of cannabis at Sobe.
“In Ekiti, 1,420kg of cannabis was recovered from Ara in Ikole LGA, while in Akure, Ondo State, operatives arrested one Mrs Grace Henry in her residence at Itamo Igoba with 573kg of cannabis. In other parts of the state, 450kg of cannabis was seized along Ipele-Idoani Road, and 420.5kg of cannabis at Ogkogu Camp, Ipele, both in Owo LGA.”
The Chairman and Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (retd.), commended the officers and men of the nine commands for their resilience and charged them not to relent.