Destroys over 11 tonnes of cannabis in Ogun, Edo forests
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 67-year-old trafficker, Chukwuemeka Clement, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport (NAIA), Abuja, for ingesting 100 wraps of cocaine.
 
The suspect claimed to have ventured into the criminal enterprise to raise money to marry a new wife and start life afresh after wasting 30 years in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand.
 
Clement was arrested last Tuesday, during inward clearance of passengers on Ethiopian Airlines flight 951 from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and taken for body scan, which revealed multiple pellets in his stomach.
  
While under observation, he excreted a total of 100 wraps of cocaine weighing 2.195 kilogrammes in four excretions.
  
Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the development, yesterday, said Clement claimed to have spent 30 years in Brazil, Ethiopia, and Thailand, while he was once married, but lost his wife and without a child.
 
Babafemi said the suspect, in his statement, decided to go into drug trafficking to raise enough money to marry a new wife and start life afresh.
 
On the same day, NDLEA operatives at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, intercepted a 45-year-old woman, Bilkisu Bello, while preparing to board a Saudi Airline flight to Saudi Arabia.
 
While being interviewed, she confessed that pellets of cocaine given to her to swallow before her flight were kept in a house in Farawa area of Kano.  
 
When she led NDLEA officers to the house, 52 wraps of the illicit substance, with a total weight of 767 grammes were recovered.
  
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives, supported by officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Civil Defence Corps and Amotekun personnel, on the same day, stormed James Town, in Ogunmakin, Obafemi Owode Local Council of Ogun State, where they located and destroyed 10.38 tonnes of Cannabis sativa, covering over 4.152 hectares.
 
While on their way back from the operation, the team also intercepted a truck marked FS548XN carrying a 40ft container loaded with logs of wood. 
 

A search of the container led to the recovery of two bags of Cannabis sativa weighing 20kgs, while six suspects: Ahmed Yusuf, Olaniyi Babatunde, Adedeji Babatunde, Richard John, Osolale Olamilekan and Abdulazeez Saeed, in the truck, were arrested.
 
In the same vein, operatives on Sunday, October 1, raided Obi camp in Owan West Local Council of Edo State, where 30 sacks of skunk weighing 300kgs and concealed in charcoal, were evacuated from an old, dilapidated mud house.
 
Similarly, two cannabis farms, measuring 1.179065 hectares at Igbanke forest in Orhiowon Local Council of the state, were identified and destroyed last Friday, while four suspects: Tersoo Zaria; Ifeanyi Osai; Moses David; and Daniel Gabriel, were arrested.
 
In Gombe State, a suspect, Auwal Bindow, was arrested on Friday, October 6, along Bauchi-Gombe Road with 50,000 capsules of tramadol, while in Oyo State, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, nabbed Anuoluwapo Blessing Iyanu, with 52 blocks of compressed pawpaw shaped Cannabis sativa weighing 30kgs last Wednesday.