The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two grandfathers for allegedly supplying illicit drugs to secondary school students in Umuahia, Abia State.
The suspects, identified as 84-year-old Godfrey Orji and 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, were apprehended in separate operations following intelligence reports linking them to drug trafficking activities.
NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, said Obiora was arrested on June 19, at his patent medicine store located on Club Road, Umuahia.
According to him, operatives recovered 4.64 kilogrammes of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam, during a search of the premises.
Babafemi said Orji, a pensioner, was arrested after he was caught by security personnel of Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, allegedly supplying illicit substances to two students.
“The school guards handed him and the students over to the police, who subsequently transferred the case to the NDLEA on June 18,” he said.
One of the students, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School (SS II) student, reportedly confessed that Orji regularly supplied him with drugs, which he consumed and also sold to fellow students.
The two suspects are expected to face prosecution, while the students have been enrolled for counselling and rehabilitation.
In a related development, NDLEA operatives intercepted a 9.5kg consignment of ADB Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid classified as a dangerous new psychoactive substance, at a courier company in Lagos.
The shipment, which originated from China, was concealed in a carton.
Operatives also recovered 300 grammes of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside ladies’ handbags at another logistics company in Lagos on June 16.
The agency further raided the residence of a wanted drug dealer, Lukman Badmus, also known as Lukman Ogombo, in the Ogombo area of Ajah, Lagos.
Nine bottles of codeine syrup and 30 grammes of skunk were recovered from the residence.
A follow-up operation at a shop belonging to his wife, Aisha Saraki, on Lagos Island led to the recovery of two additional bottles of codeine, drug paraphernalia and 42 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 22.5kg concealed in a minibus parked in front of the shop.
Babafemi said attempts by Saraki to dispose of some of the exhibits through a toilet were thwarted by operatives.
In Kogi State, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja highway intercepted a 33-year-old suspect, Tochukwu Onah, travelling from Lagos to Abuja with 1.03kg of methamphetamine concealed inside custard containers.
The agency also announced the arrest of a couple, James Tony Chukwudi, 48, and James Kehinde, 35, who had been on the run since the seizure of 117kg of skunk linked to them in Ekiti State on March 26.
The suspects were apprehended on June 16 at Oniyo Street, Efon-Alaaye.
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In Oyo State, operatives arrested 75-year-old Tudun Olubiyi alongside Nasiru Buhari, 22, and Buba Musa, 47, during a raid on a house in the Dangote area of Elekara, Oyo Town.
A total of 118 jumbo bags containing 1,416kg of skunk concealed under sawdust were recovered.
Similarly, in Edo State, NDLEA officers arrested Patrick Imoukhede, 45, during a raid on the Khagba forest in Owan East Local Government Area, where 1,744.075kg of skunk was destroyed and 169kg of processed cannabis recovered.
Another operation at Ebora Camp in Ilushi, Esan South Local Government Area, led to the destruction of 2,424.945kg of cannabis, while Augustine Anyamone, 45, was arrested with 395kg of skunk in a separate operation.
Babafemi said the agency also sustained its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) campaign through sensitisation programmes conducted in schools, communities and other public institutions across the country.
NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig.-Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers and men of the agency’s commands in Abia, Ekiti, Oyo, Lagos, Kogi and Edo states for the arrests and seizures.
He urged them to sustain the momentum in drug supply reduction efforts while intensifying public enlightenment campaigns against drug abuse.
