Man in wheelchair, ex-convict, others nabbed as NDLEA rakes in 33 tons of illicit drugs
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency have arrested a notorious drug dealer, 45-year-old Godwin Emuneyin, who is physically challenged and uses 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 Director of Advocacy and Media of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed this in a statement on Sunday.
Babafemi said Emuneyin was arrested on November 7, 2023 at his base in Afuze following credible intelligence.
At the time of his arrest, a wooden box used to conceal illicit substances: 18 pinches of methamphetamine, one block and 71 wraps of cannabis, was recovered from him.
In other interdiction operations in Edo State, NDLEA operatives on November 6 recovered 42 bags of cannabis weighing 480kgs from a camp in Aviosi forest in Owan West LGA, while the Utese forest in Ovia North East LGA was also raided same day with 231.5kgs of the substance recovered and a cannabis farm measuring 0.778960 hectare destroyed.
In Adamawa State, operatives on patrol along Ngurore-Yola Road on November 9 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, aka Isa Male, 25, said he was taking the consignment from Jalingo, Taraba State to deliver in Yola, Adamawa State.
The previous day, November 8, a suspect, Abdullahi Sani, aka Danfulani, was arrested at Ngurore town in possession of some quantity of dried weeds suspected to be cannabis sativa in a white nylon.
Danfulani thereafter led operatives on a follow up operation to the home of a drug lord, Alhaji Bubakari, aka Dan Mamuda, an unrepentant ex-convict, where 19 blocks of compressed cannabis that weighed 13kgs 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 LGA on November 6 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.
Okpor Chukwuma and six other male suspects found on the farmland were arrested.
While a commercial bus driver, Olayinka Sowo, 25, was arrested on November 10 along Ibadan-Akure Expressway over alleged conspiracy to transport 45.150kgs cannabis from Lagos State to Osun State, NDLEA officers in Abuja on the same day intercepted 7,980 pills of diazepam and 567 bottles of codeine syrup in a commercial bus along Abaji-Abuja Expressway 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 LGA, where they destroyed 12.5 tons of cannabis on five hectares of farmland, and recovered 53.22kgs 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 113.1kgs on November 7.
In the same vein, Commands across the country intensified their War Against Drug Abuse 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.
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, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed 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.
