A suspected drug kingpin wanted for alleged attempts to ship illicit drug consignments to the United Kingdom tops the list of arrests made by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA through interdiction operations that led to the seizure of four tons of illicit substances in the past week.

According to a statement by the spokesman of the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi on Sunday, Obiorah Chigozie has been on the wanted list of the NDLEA since 15th September 2023 when a consignment of 1.5 kilogrammes skunk concealed in flour going to London, UK was intercepted at the SAHCO export shed of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, during which his freight agent, Nworah Adaugo was arrested.

Babafemi said that Obiorah convinced that the 1.5 kilogrammes consignment had sailed through, walked into the agency’s dragnet last Thursday when he personally brought another tranche of 2 kilogrammes concealed in cartons to the airport for shipment to the UK. He noted that during interrogation, Obiorah claimed he was into shoes sales in Lagos before venturing into the illicit drug business.

He said operatives of the Federal Capital Territory Command of the agency last Friday intercepted a container truck with registration number BD G41 XM coming from Lagos to Kano at the Gwagwalada area of the FCT, revealing that no less than 1,188 kilogrammes of skunk loaded at Owo, Ondo state and hidden under cartons of toothpaste were recovered from the truck and its driver, Amafan Fattison, 28, arrested.

In the same vein, NDLEA officers in Bayelsa state last Wednesday seized 432 kilogrammes of the same substance from an abandoned J5 bus along Saipem road, Opolo, Yenagoa. The vehicle was equally recovered from the scene for further investigation.

In Kano, a septuagenarian grandpa, Ado Mai Unguwa, was arrested last Saturday with 143.2 kilogrammes skunk in Dindere village, Tofa local government area, while operatives in Enugu same day recovered 110.6 kilogrammes of same substance from a locked-up shop at Aria new market.

Babafemi revealed that operatives in Lagos on Saturday stormed the notorious Idi-Oro drug enclave in Mushin where they seized 212.5 kilogrammes of cannabis sativa belonging to a wanted drug lord. This is even as NDLEA officers in Kwara state recovered 104 kilogrammes of skunk from a Toyota Camry car in Offa area of the state, while a Chadian, Mohammed Ibrahim, 25, was nabbed at Mafa check point, Borno state with 11.8 kilogrammes of same substance last Monday.

He said in Plateau, the state police command in the spirit of inter-agency collaboration transferred four suspects: Yusuf Akim; Frank Gah; Jackson Ejeh and Joseph Utsu, and 1,978 kilogrammes cannabis recovered from them to the state command of NDLEA, while in Cross River, operatives last Monday seized 40,000 ampules of pentazocine injection from two suspects: Fajulugbe Adeshola, 35, and Nnaorji Agwe, 54, at Mobil by MCC road, Calabar.

Also in Kogi state, NDLEA officers last Wednesday arrested a suspect, Ifeanyi Odoh, 25, with 59,867 pills of opioids including Tramadol and 4.03 kilogrammes cannabis sativa at Idah area of the state.

Babafemi dissident the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy activities equally continued across the country in the past week. He noted that some of the activities include: WADA advocacy visit to the Director/CEO, Nigeria French Village, Badagry, Lagos, Prof. Lateef Ayeleru by the Seme Special Area command of NDLEA; WADA sensitisation lecture at Ar-Rahmania College of Health Sciences, Minna, Niger state; WADA advocacy lecture at Pentecostal Academy, Aba, Abia state and WADA sensitisation lecture for students and staff of School of Nursing, Eket, Akwa Ibom state among others.

Meanwhile, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, FCT, Bayelsa, Borno, Kogi, Kwara, Cross River, Borno and Enugu Commands of the agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, equally praised their counterparts in all the commands across the country for ensuring a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.