A self-acclaimed building engineer and suspected drug trafficker, Egwu Phillip Inya, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) while attempting to take delivery of illicit consignments concealed in pressure machines imported from South Africa.
The 42-year-old Egwu was arrested on Monday, December 2, at Okeyson Motor Park, Enugu when he showed up to collect three units of pressure machines, inside which parcels of Loud, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 7.40 kilogrammes, were hidden.
The NDLEA spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said that the consignments had arrived the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos import shed on 29th November 2024.
Babafemi stated: “Following credible intelligence, officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the Agency had monitored the shipment pass through clearing processes up to a logistics company’s warehouse outside the airport where it was to be collected by the consignee.
“The importer however changed the point of collection to Enugu at the last minute. As a result, NDLEA operatives in a follow up operation in Enugu arrested Egwu when he showed up to collect the consignments.”
Also, no fewer than 511,000 pills of Tramadol were recovered from a Siena vehicle at Hildi, Askira Uba Way in Adamawa State by NDLEA operatives on patrol along the road in the early hours of Friday, December 6.
The occupants of the vehicle had made a detour on sighting the NDLEA team and abandoned the vehicle with the consignments after noticing the operatives were on their trail.
In Ekiti State, two suspects, Olanrewaju Alale, aged 48, and Babatunde Kayode Ijadahun, 55, were arrested along Ise-Emure Road in a J5 bus marked EPE 958 XJ while transporting 108 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1, 323 kilogrammes to Owo, Ondo State.
After their arrest, they claimed that the consignment was to be moved from Ondo to the north for distribution.
Another suspect, Adekunle Yusuf, 33, was nabbed by NDLEA operatives with 704 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance, concealed in white sacks on Friday, December 6, at Idere Road, Igboora, Oyo State.
On same day, a grandmother, 65-year-old Ramata Bola Adeyemo, was arrested by NDLEA operatives at 62 Odunfa Street, Lagos Island, Lagos State, where 20.6 litres of codeine-based syrup were recovered from her.
Also arrested in Lagos was Alhaji Lawan Manga who was picked at Ogundana Street, Ikeja on Thursday, December 5, with 4.7kg cannabis and 1.3kg Tramadol recovered from him.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization lectures to schools, worship centres, work places and communities, among others, in the past week.
These included WADA sensitisation lecture to students and staff of Progressive Secondary School, Ado Awaye, Oyo State; Muslim Grammar School, Ede, Osun State; Government Girls College, Maiduguri, Borno State; Community Secondary School, Ogale, Rivers State; Santa Maria Secondary School, Igogoro, Enugu State; and Chiranci Upper Basic Junior Secondary School, Bichi, Kano State.
Lagos State command of the NDLEA also organised WADA enlightenment lecture for leaders and members of NURTW at Orile Agege.
Commending the officers and men of the Agency’s commands for the arrests and seizures, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) stated that their operational successes and those of their compatriots across the country, especially their balanced approach to drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts, were well appreciated.
