Pregnant Woman Arrested with 1,441kg Imported Skunk in Lagos

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

The operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in clandestine operations on two Lagos drug stores have arrested a pregnant woman and four men, including a 62 year old, with total haul of 1,442 kilogrammes of imported skunk and 182,000 tablets of tramadal.

The woman, Ms. Chioma Eze, was arrested last Friday when operatives raided her store and home in Ojo area of Lagos while another suspect, Michael Oroke was also nabbed with 29 kilogrammes of the illicit drug in the same location.

A statement by the Spokesman of the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, also said that last Thursday, operatives of the agency raided a hideout in Abule-Egba area of the state where Mr. Basset Emmanuel, Mr. Ezekwem Lawrence, Mr. Mohammed Aliyu and Mr. Suwidi Isiaku were arrested with 182,000 tablets of tramadol 225mg.

He said in similar raids across eight other states of Rivers, Kogi, Benue, Adamawa, Anambra, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo, yielded over 4,000 kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs that were seized.

On Saturday, during a routine stop and search exercise along Aba/Port Harcourt expressway, by Obigbo, operatives intercepted a consignment of tramadol in a commercial Toyota Hiace bus, with a waybill addressed to one Mr. Shadrach Udechukwu, with a follow-up operation led to Udechukwu’s arrest and different quantities of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, cannabis sativa, tramadol, Exol-5, Swinol, and Diazepam recovered from him.

In Kogi State, one Timi Sunday was arrested with 95.945 kilogrammes of cannabis at Egbe town, and Mr. Musa Sani with 10.5 kilogrammes cannabis along Okene-Lokoja highway while Mr. Yaro Bala was arrested with 65 kilogrammes cannabis on the same road.

Babafemi said no fewer than 20,000 capsules of Tramadol coming from Onitsha, Anambra State were seized in Otukpo, Benue State and a suspect arrested, while in Adamawa, a search operation in a house at Ajiya Street, Jimeta, led to the arrest of a female suspect, Ms. Maryam Yunusa with 16 pinches of cocaine.

He also disclosed that a raid at Success line, Marine Modern Market, Onitsha, led to the seizure of 234 kilogrammes cannabis and a suspect arrested while in Edo State, Mr. Francis Eferi, was arrested in Okpuje, Owan West LGA with 481 kilogrammes cannabis and Mr. Emmanuel Amu with 81kg cannabis at Sobe.

In Ekiti, 1,420 kilogrammes cannabis was recovered from Ara in Ikole Local Government Area while in Akure, Ondo State, operatives arrested one Mrs. Grace Henry at her residence at Itamo Igoba, with 573 kilogrammes cannabis. In other parts of the state, 450 kilogrammes cannabis was seized along Ipele-Idoani road, and 420.5 kilogrammes cannabis at Ogkogu camp, Ipele, both in Owo local government area.

Speaking on the latest clampdown, the Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) commended the officers and men of the nine state commands where the arrests were made for their resilience and charged them not to relent.