Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, raided a lounge in Osogbo, the Osun state capital, on Saturday, November 25, where a night party organized for illicit substance abuse was going to be held, and arrested some of the organisers who were found with drug exhibits.
The raid followed credible intelligence that some persons were going to hold a night party tagged Unholy Alliance for Stoners and Drunkards where different types of illicit substances were going to be sold and consumed by patrons. Soon after the organisers began to gather at Berrymist Lounge, located in the Ofatedo area of Osogbo, to start the party, NDLEA operatives swooped on them, arrested them, and recovered illicit substances of abuse and drug paraphernalia from them. Those arrested include: Ikotu Omolayo, 25; Fola Olabode, 30; and Akorede Adunni Ajibola, 22. The management of the lounge has also been invited for further investigation. This comes on the heels of an earlier raid on Thursday, November 23rd, at Area 5 Forest Reserve, Ile-Ife, where operatives recovered 156 kg of cannabis sativa.
Meanwhile, operatives in Ogun State arrested two suspects on Friday, November 24th, at the Ileke trailer garage along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway, where 859 kilograms of cannabis sativa were concealed among bags of sugar in a truck for onward transportation to Mokwa, Niger State. The consignment was loaded in Ogbese, Ondo State, and hidden among bags of cement in a truck before being transloaded into another trailer bearing sugar in Ogun State.
In Edo state, operatives stormed a warehouse at Obi Camp in Owan West LGA on Monday, November 20th, where they recovered 338 kg of cannabis concealed in sacks of charcoal, while in another operation in Ikhin forest, Owan East LGA, NDLEA officers seized 235 kg of the same psychoactive substance on Saturday, November 25th. A suspect, Onah Kenneth Ikechukwu, 32, was arrested at Jattu, Etsako West LGA, with 11,690 capsules of tramadol, 295 bottles of codeine syrup and various quantities of Molly, Cannabis and Methamphetamine on November 22nd.
A similar raid in Lagos on Wednesday, November 22nd, at Enu Owa Street, Lagos Island, led to the recovery of 40,500 ampoules of pentazocine injection and 440,000 pills of tramadol in a store belonging to a suspect, Ebuka Amechi, who is currently at large. Not less than 135,600 capsules of tramadol and 950 grams of cannabis were seized from two suspects: Afamefuna Ibekwe, 37, and Sunday Onweh, 41, at Nkpor, Akuzor, and Ose-Ogbaijo, Onitsha, respectively.
While 37,360 pills of different opioids and 250 bottles of codeine syrup coming from Onitsha, Anambra, enroute Abuja were recovered from Muhammed Abba Khamis, 22, on Thursday, November 23rd, along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway, operatives in Ekiti state seized a total of 288 kg of cannabis at Odo-Owa forest in Ijero LGA on Saturday, November 25th. At least 116 kg of the same psychoactive substance were seized from a suspect, Chinagoram Obaru, 24, who was arrested at Iju Forest on Thursday, November 23.
In the same vein, commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA, and sensitization lectures in schools, communities, work places, and others. Some of these include: WADA sensitization lecture for students and staff of Comprehensive High School, Abia, Udi LGA, Enugu; teachers and students of Dr. Nuhu Sanusi Junior/Senior Secondary School, Dutse, Jigawa; students of Haneef High School, Jos, Plateau; students of Akinorun Muslim Grammar School, Ikirun, Osun; students of Zaibadari Michika Primary, Junior, and Senior Secondary School, Michika, Adamawa; and students of Madarasatul-Islamiya Baichin Kako, Marna Gusau, Zamfara state, among others.
Commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the Osun, Ogun, Ondo, Edo, Anambra, Ekiti, Kogi, and Lagos Commands, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their efforts, especially with the desperation of criminal networks to make money by all means as the yuletide season approaches.
