Kingpin bags five years for drug trafficking
Drug suspect
NDLEA seizes more illicit drugs, rescues five pregnant teenagers
Justice Akintayo Aluko of a Federal High court sitting in Lagos, has sentenced a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi, to five years imprisonment for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilogramme of skunk.
Odeyemi was arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Saturday, July 1, 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.
Also, NDLEA operatives have thwarted fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of transnational drug trafficking organisations through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, and courier companies in Lagos.
Some of the drugs were concealed in various consignments as gifts, including a 7.50 kilogrammes 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.
Similarly, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations (DOGI) attached to some courier companies, have intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilogrammes of skunk and 14 grammes of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and soles of ladies’ shoes respectively.
In Imo State, operatives on patrol along Aba-Owerri expressway on Wednesday, September 13, intercepted five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used in a baby factory.
Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, said the victims were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in the 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.
According to the agency, the teenagers, who claimed ignorance of the men that impregnated them, 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 227.1 kilogrammes of cannabis on Tuesday, September 12, at Ikebe village, Ankpa Local Council in Kogi State, while a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, was nabbed with 108kgs of same substance on Saturday, September 16, in Ifo area of Ogun State.
In another raid, a total of 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55kg, and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo of Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on September 11, along Abuja road, have been traced to two other suspects: Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali, who were arrested in a follow-up operation in Kano.
At the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, 27-year-old Kingsley Chimaobi was arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on September 11.
Commending personnel of the agency, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba-Marwa (Retd), urged his men to sustain and scale up their War Against Drug Abuse, (WADA), in all commands across the country, and work with stakeholders to take WADA sensitisation lectures and advocacy messages to communities, schools, worship centres, workplaces and traditional institutions.
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