Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested an alleged notorious drug dealer, 45-year-old Godwin Emuneyin, who is physically challenged and accused of using his wheelchair as cover to deal in illicit substances such as methamphetamine and cannabis in Afuze, headquarters of Owan East local government area of Edo state.

The spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday said the suspect was arrested last Tuesday at his base in Afuze following credible intelligence. He said as at the time of his arrest, a wooden box used to conceal illicit substances including 18 pinches of methamphetamine, one block and 71 wraps of cannabis, were recovered from him.

Babafemi said in other interdiction operations in Edo state, NDLEA operatives last Monday recovered 42 bags of cannabis weighing 480 kilogrammes from a camp in Aviosi forest in Owan West local government area while the Utese forest in Ovia North East local government area was also raided same day with 231.5 kilogrammes of the substance recovered and a cannabis farm measuring 0.778960 hectare destroyed.

In Adamawa state, operatives on patrol along Ngurore-Yola road last Thursday
intercepted a Toyota Corolla car marked TZG 97 KY loaded with 30,899 tramadol 225mg and 100mg pills concealed inside the body compartments of the car. The driver found in possession of the drug exhibits, Sani Samaila (a.k.a Isa Male),25, said he was bringing the consignment from Jalingo, Taraba State to deliver in Yola, Adamawa State.

He noted that the previous day, a suspect, Abdullahi Sani (a.k.a Danfulani) was arrested at Ngurore town in possession of some quantity of dried weeds suspected to be cannabis sativa in a white nylon. He thereafter led operatives on a follow up operation to the home of a drug lord, Alhaji Bubakari (a.k.a Dan Mamuda), an ex-convict, where 19 blocks of compressed cannabis that weighed 13 kilogrammes were recovered.

In Ogun state, not less than 18.875 tons of cannabis sativa on 7.55 hectares farmland were destroyed and another 100 jumbo bags weighing 1,100 kilograms of the psychoactive substance recovered at James town, Ogunmakin area of Obafemi Owode local government area last Monday, by a combined team of NDLEA operatives with officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Defence Intelligence Agency and the State Security Network, Amotekun. He said Okpor Chukwuma and six other male suspects found on the farmland were arrested.

He said a commercial bus driver, Olayinka Sowo, 25, was arrested last Friday along Ibadan – Akure expressway over alleged conspiracy to transport 45.15 kilogrammes cannabis from Lagos to Osun state, adding that NDLEA officers in Abuja on same day intercepted 7, 980 pills of diazepam and 567 bottles of codeine syrup in a commercial bus along Abaji-Abuja highway after which a follow up operation at Zuba motor park led to the arrest of the owner of the consignment, Ugwu Ikenna, 30.

In Delta state, NDLEA operatives backed by men of the Nigerian Army stormed a remote forest in Umuchime community, Ndokwa West local government area where they destroyed 12.5 tons of cannabis on five hectares of farmland, and recovered 53.22 kilogrammes processed weeds and seeds of the substance. A suspect, Christopher Anim (alias Ogidi) was also arrested in the course of the operation. Two suspects: Amarachukwu Eugene, 32, and Abdulaziz Auwal, 25, were arrested in another operation by operatives in Kano with 202 blocks of cannabis weighing 113.1 kilogrammes last Tuesday.

In continuation of awareness on dangers of illicit drugs, NDLEA Commands across the country intensified their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, advocacy lectures. These include: Sensitisation lecture for students of Government Commercial Secondary School, Wudil, Kano state; WADA advocacy visit to Zamfara state governor, Dr. Dauda Lawal in Gusau; WADA sensitisation lecture for students of George Burton Memorial School, Ilesa, Osun state and similar lecture delivered at Kenneth Dike Secondary School, Awka, Anambra state, among others.

Meanwhile, while commending the officers and men of the Edo, Ogun, Osun, Adamawa, Delta, and FCT Commands of the agency for their balanced efforts in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) equally applauded their counterparts across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures thus creating parity between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.