NDLEA Arrests Two Drug Suppliers in Kwara, Seizes 24kg Diazepam, Codeine

Michael Olugbode

Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two suspected drug dealers, Martins Okwor Ejiofor, 31, and Bala Mohammed, 33, with a total of 24.450 kilogrammes of assorted substances.

These substances were suspected to be delivered in Gwada, Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, where bandits in neighbouring forest buy their illicit drugs. Gwada has one of the two functional markets bordering the forest where bandits and kidnappers hide in the state.

Drugs seized from the suspects include Codeine (7.100kg), Diazepam (6.400kg), and Exol (5-10.950kg).

The Kwara State NDLEA Command highway patrol team on the Okolowo (Ilorin)-Jebba highway intercepted the consignment in a Hiace bus, with registration number: Niger 14 B.40NG, belonging to the Niger State Transport Authority on June 5, 2021.

Ejiofor had travelled to Lagos with the second suspect to procure the drugs to be delivered to dealers in Gwada. During interrogation, he confessed that he had been arrested with over 50 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa and charged to court by the Niger State Command of the agency in 2020. He completed his one-year jail term in March this year, and resumed his nefarious illicit drug business again.

Meanwhile, one other suspect, Usman Abass, 38, was arrested with 6.8kg cannabis sativa concealed in a sack containing used clothes, which the suspect bought at the Alaba International Market in Lagos.

The suspect, upon interrogation, claimed that one Baba gave him the exhibit to deliver to one Lawali in Daura, Katsina State, before his arrest by a team of the operatives attached to Jebba Area Command on a routine stop-and-search operation. The suspect confessed that he had transported cannabis sativa once to Katsina and that the latest trip was his second.The previous day, June 4, operatives of the Delta State Command of the agency arrested 20-year-old Chukwujeku Lucky in Ogwashi Uku with multiple drugs weighing 38.90 kg. Some of the drugs seized from his apartment, where he serves as a salesman, included 68 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 38.7kg; 498 pinches of cocaine (50.9 grams); 33 pinches of heroin (4.4 grams); 304 capsules of Tramadol (91grams); 72 tablets of Swinol (27 grams), and 26 grams of Methamphetamine.

While commending the commanders, officers and men of both Kwara and Delta States Commands for the arrests and seizures, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), said the development would in no small measure reduce the availability of illicit substances available to bandits and other criminal elements who take them as enhancers for their evil enterprise.

He charged them to remain vigilant and continue to acquaint themselves with the latest disingenuous modes of concealment and transportation of illicit drugs by defiant traffickers.