Drug lord bags 5 years jail term as NDLEA seizes more illicit drugs

*Rescues 5 pregnant baby factory teenagers

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), has announced the sentencing of a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi, to gfve years imprisonment for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilograms of skunk.by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

Odeyemi was arrested on Saturday 1st July while conveying 89 jumbo bags of the illicit substance in his truck around Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki. He was subsequently charged in suit number FHC/L/388C/2023 presided over by Justice Akintayo Aluko.

The NDLEA in a communique signed by it’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said operatives have also thwarted fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of ransnational drug trafficking organisations through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Ikeja and courier companies in Lagos.

Some of the illicit drugs were concealed in various consignments as gifts including a 7.50 kilograms of skunk concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf in the luggage of one Ugwu Peter Tochukwu,on his way to Oman via a Qatar Airways flight.

In the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilograms of skunk and 14 grams of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and soles of ladies’ high heel shoes respectively.

The NDLEA weekly statement also stated that “in Imo state, operatives on patrol along Aba-Owerri expressway on Wednesday 13th September intercepted five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used in a baby factory.

“They were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in Naze area of Owerri to Ikenegbu area of the state capital.

“The victims include: Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16. In their statements, they claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them.

According to the agency, the teenagers are to be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, for further investigations.

Also, two suspects: Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were arrested with 227.1kgs of cannabis on Tuesday 11th September at Ikebe village, Ankpa Local Governmenr Area, (LGA), in Kogi state and a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was nabbed with 108kgs of same substance on Saturday 16th September in Ifo area of Ogun state.

In another raid, a total of 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55kgs and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo, lol Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday 11th September along Abuja road have been traced to two other suspects: Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali who were arrested in follow up operations in Kano.

In FCT Abuja, 27-year-old Kingsley Chimaobi was arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on Tuesday 11th September.

Commending personnel of the agency, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba-Marwa (Retd) urged his men to sustain and scale up their War Against Drug Abuse, (WADA), in all commands across the country and to work with stakeholders to take the WADA sensitization lectures and advocacy messages to communities, schools, worship centres, work places and traditional institutions.