NDLEA Nabs 80-year-old Woman, Others with Drugs in Akure

By Michael Olugbode

An 80-year-old woman, Mrs. Mary Adebayo, her 19-year-old grand-daughter, Funmilola Adebayo and two other ladies have been arrested in Akure, the Ondo State capital by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, (NDLEA), for selling assorted illicit drugs.

The drugs they were caught with include cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, tramadol, swinol and skuchies.

According to a statement issued yesterday by the spokesman of the anti-drug agency, Mr. Femi Babafemi, a raid was made on their locations based on intelligence.

He said: “Following intelligence-based raids and follow up operations on their locations on Sunday, May 2, 2021, over 192 kilogrammes of cocaine and other psychoactive substances were recovered from the suspects while the octogenarian, her granddaughter and two other ladies; Tessy Matthew and Blessing Adesida were arrested.”

He said as a result of the bust, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd) had directed the acting Commander, Ondo State Command of the Agency, Callys Alumona to launch a manhunt for other members of the drug cartel now on the run.

He disclosed that the grandmother and her granddaughter were arrested at 6:30am on Sunday at Ayeyemi Street, Akure South LGA

According to him, the substances recovered in the early morning raid were: Skuchies- 149kg, cocaine-11grammes, methamphetamine-17grammes, heroin-3grammes, cannabis sativa- 4.9kg, swinol- 8grammes and tramadol- 49grammes.

Also recovered from them were two deep freezers and a TVS motorcycle.

Babafemi said on the same date, at about 1:30pm, a raid carried out at Rate Hotel, Care Street, in Akure South LGA led to the arrest of 25-year-old Tessy Mathew from whom 33 kilogrammes of skuchies were recovered.

He added that following her preliminary interrogation, a followup operation was immediately carried out, leading to the arrest of 25-year-old Blessing Adesida in Oshinle area of Akure South LGA.

He said recovered from her include: skuchies-3kg and cannabis-7grammes.

The statement said the Ondo State’s Acting Commander of the Agency, Callys Alumona, revealed that other members of the two drug cartels have been watch listed and efforts to arrest them are still ongoing.

In a related development, operatives of the Adamawa Command of the NDLEA have arrested a 58-year-old Chinedu Anwanya, and 47-year-old Femi Abiodun, with 80 blocks of compressed cannabis sativa, weighing 76 kilogrammes, concealed in three white sacks tucked in the booth of a Toyota Avalon car with registration number: LAGOS DC 997 FST.

According to the Adamawa State Commander of NDLEA, Idris Bello, the suspects were arrested on Monday 3rd May, 202 at about 6 a.m in Mayo Belwa town, Mayo Belwa LGA of the state.

The Commander of Narcotics said: “They took off from Auchi in Edo State,” while disclosing that also recovered from them was a fake Police Warrant Card bearing the name of Chinedu Anwanya with the rank of a DSP.

Reacting to the latest development, Marwa commended officers and men of the Ondo and Adamawa state Commands of the Agency for their vigilance and commitment to work.

He however charged them and their counterparts in other Commands to continue the nationwide offensive action against the illicit trade.

He said. “I recognise and commend the great work our officers and men in Ondo and Adamawa states have done in these operations. However, I still want to encourage them and their counterparts across the country that we must raise the ante in fighting drug criminalities in Nigeria.

“We must now go beyond seizures and arrests, and dismantle the cartels because there are cartels behind each of the drugs, be it cocaine, heroin, tramadol or cannabis, there are cartels behind each of these drugs and we must identify them and rein them in, that is the next phase of this war as we continue with our maxim of offensive action.”