Paul Mbadugha, a Vietnam-bound businessman, was arrested by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) operatives at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after testing positive for cocaine ingestion.
The 54-year-old suspect was apprehended at the Abuja airport’s boarding gate last Monday during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha.
The anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said in a statement on Sunday that after four days of excretion observation, Mbadugha egressed 88 wraps of cocaine weighing 1.71 kilogrammes.
Babafemi claimed in Mbadugha’s statement that he is a Lagos-based businessman who was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in the Isolo area of the state for onwards onwards in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000.
The spokesman also stated that NDLEA officers at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s export shed intercepted a shipment of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 800 grammes concealed in noodles bound for Congo. He added that a follow-up operation at the Alaba International Market in Lagos’ Ojo area resulted in the arrest of the consignment’s sender, Nnamani Sunday, who deals in GSM handsets.
He also revealed that NDLEA operatives recovered a large consignment of Loud imported from Canada at the Lagos airport and that a suspect, Desalu Temitope, who arrived on an Air France flight with six boxes, was arrested by anti-narcotic officers during a joint security examination at the arrival hall.
He claimed that 65.8 kilogrammes of the psychoactive substance were recovered from four of the six suitcases. Desalu was said to have revealed in his statement that he and an accomplice who is still at large were promised $10,000 if the shipment was successfully delivered in Lagos.
Babafemi also revealed that no less than 892,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth N6,246,800,000.00 in street value were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state during a joint examination of the containers with men from the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders last Wednesday.
He stated that the opioid bottles were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilogrammes and shipped in five containers from India.
Last Wednesday, NDLEA operatives supported by Nigerthe ian Army and other security agencies, as well as community youths, raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, destroying 21,800 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farm farmlandcording to Babafemi, the following day, last Thursday, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG, from which 200.2 kilogrammes of cannabis was recovered and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, arrested.
While Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 tramadol pills last Monday in Gadar Tamburawa, Kano, NDLEA operatives in Ogun state arrested Fidelis Egede, 70, and three others: Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when a cannabis plantation on six hectares was raided at AlakaAlaskaage on Tuesday.
Last Tuesday, NDLEA officers patrolling the Kwali-Gwagwalada motorway in Abuja intercepted a truck carrying 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection and arrested three suspects: Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul and Edet Ubokobong.
NDLEA agents in Niger state arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town last Thursday with 28,500 tramadol pills hidden in a loudspeaker, while their counterparts in Kogi state apprehended Abba Yakubu on Wednesday with 40,000 pills of the same opioid on his way to Kontagora.
Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers last Thursday in Paparanda, Lokoja, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.
Babafemi stated that NDLEA commands throughout the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation lectures and advocacy visits to worship centres, schools, workplaces, traditional rulers’ palaces, and communities throughout the week.
Meanwhile, while commending the officers and men of the NAIA, MMIA, PHPC, FCT, Kogi, Ogun, Ekiti, Kano, Enugu, and Niger commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised their compatriots in all commands across the country for intensifying WADA sensitisation lectures and advocacy messages to every part of their areas of responsibility.
NAN
