NDLEA Seizes 4,560kg Skunk in Lagos, Adamawa, Osun
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
No fewer than 4,560 kilogrammes of skunk were seized in interdiction operations in Lagos, Adamawa and Osun States by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in the last few days.
The operatives also raided a skooches factory in Ogun State and arrested four members of a drug syndicate, including two church officials-a female staff of a courier company and another lady-involved in trafficking lethal opioid, fentanyl in Delta State.
These were parts of the clampdowns in the last one week by the anti-narcotics agency, according to a statement issued yesterday by its spokesman, Femi Babafemi.
He noted that the bust of the fentanyl cartel operating in Warri, Delta State, is coming barely a month after two members of another syndicate, Odoh Oguejiofor and Oliver Uzoma, were arrested at Ogbogwu market, Onitsha Head Bridge, Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State following months of intelligence-led investigation of the syndicates behind the dangerous drug, “which is 100 times more potent than heroin and currently responsible for over 70 percent overdose deaths as well as a major contributor to fatal and nonfatal overdoses in the United States.”
Babafemi said two officials of Christ Mercyland Deliverance Ministries (aka Mercy City Church) in Warri, Delta State, Adewale Ayeni, 39, and Ebipakebina Appeal, 41, linked to two intercepted consignments of the illicit drug have been arrested in Warri.
He disclosed that while Ayeni is one of those managing the prayer call centre of the church, Ebipakebina is in charge of movement of international guests from the airport to the church.
The spokesman said two female accomplices also arrested in Warri in the course of investigating the intercepted shipments are Naomi David, 28, who is a staff of United Parcel Services (UPS), and Stacy Njideka, also known as Nkiruka, 27, who is a business associate of Ayeni.
He added that operatives of the agency last Wednesday intercepted a Toyota Hilux vehicle marked EPE 863 XD on Ngurore-Mayo Belwa road, Adamawa State, and a search of the van with two occupants, Kelvin Efe, 51, and Christian Ogaga, 42, showed that 118 cartons of Indomie noodles packs were used to conceal 544 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa, weighing 408 kilogrammes, and hidden in a false compartment meant for distribution in Yola, Mubi and Gombe.
In Lagos, NDLEA operatives on July 1 arrested a suspect, Segun Odeyemi, conveying 89 jumbo bags of skunk with a total weight of 3,842 kilogrammes in his truck around Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki, while in Osun State an abandoned J5 Peugeot bus marked AAA 521 SQ with bags of fresh pepper used to conceal 25 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 300.5 kilogrammes was recovered on Akure-Ilesa expressway after its occupants sighted NDLEA officers on patrol last Friday.
Operatives in Ogun State last Thursday raided a skucchies factory at Ajaka Sagamu, where a suspect, Adekunle Adekola, was arrested. Exhibits recovered from the premises included 10 kilogrammes cannabis; 1,356 litres of skucchies; 20 litres of codeine; seven deep freezers; a set of generator, two gas cylinders among others.
Meanwhile, commending the team of NDLEA officers tracking the fentanyl opioid syndicate in Nigeria for the success of the operations so far, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Agency, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), also lauded their counterparts in Adamawa, Lagos, Osun and Ogun States for the arrests and seizures of the past week.
