…agency intercepts illicit consignments in Lagos airport, Zamfara, Adamawa, Edo, Yobe, and Taraba as Marwa vows tougher war against drug cartels
By Nkechi Eze
In a sweeping anti-narcotics operation that spanned airports, highways, forests, and border communities, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have recorded multiple major seizures of illicit substances, intercepting heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, skunk, and opioids in Lagos, Zamfara, Adamawa, Edo, Taraba, and Yobe States. The busts, according to the Agency, also led to the arrest of drug couriers, cultivators, and distributors in what NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), described as “a significant milestone in dismantling drug trafficking organizations operating within and outside Nigeria.”
The most dramatic arrests occurred at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos, where two Brazil returnees, Ofoma Sunday, 46, and Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, were caught attempting to smuggle hard drugs into the country. NDLEA spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, confirmed in a statement that Ofoma, who arrived Lagos from Brazil via Ethiopia on September 16 aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight, ingested 111 wraps of heroin weighing 1.452 kilograms. Acting on intelligence, operatives tracked him to Eliata Hotel in Amuwo Odofin where he was meant to excrete the drugs for delivery to an accomplice, 55-year-old Nweke Jude Chuckwudi, who was promptly arrested.
In a related arrest on September 19, Ukachukwu Frank Ikechukwu, also returning from Brazil through Addis Ababa, excreted five big wraps of cocaine weighing 145 grams. In his confession, he admitted buying nine wraps in Brazil, which he inserted into his anus before boarding his flight. He narrated how severe pain forced him to remove some wraps in Ethiopia, flushing two down a toilet, while expelling others during his connecting flight. The suspect, a former clothing trader who once lived in the United States before being deported in 2022, revealed he returned to Brazil earlier this year where he obtained a residence permit.
In another audacious attempt, NDLEA operatives, working with Aviation Security officials at MMIA, intercepted 38-year-old businesswoman, Okolonkwo Ebere Theresa, on September 14 as she tried to board a Qatar Airways flight to Doha. She was found with two large parcels of methamphetamine weighing 1.40 kilograms concealed in butt pad underwear. Ebere, who claimed to run a used clothing and POS business in Enugu, admitted she had been recruited into the illicit trade.
The same week, NDLEA officers at the NAHCO export shed discovered 40 wraps of methamphetamine weighing 2.30 kilograms hidden in food items bound for Hong Kong. The consignment, presented by 59-year-old Umelo Ifeanyi Venatus, was seized on September 15. In yet another interception on September 18, cocaine weighing 257 grams was found ingeniously concealed in seven pieces of phone chargers being shipped to New Zealand.
Outside Lagos, massive hauls of opioids and cannabis were recovered in different parts of the country. In Adamawa State, a total of 233,800 pills of tramadol were seized in three separate operations. These included 195,600 pills found in an abandoned Toyota Sienna in Mayo Belwa, 27,900 pills discovered in the bedroom of one Rita Zira in Jimeta-Yola, and another 10,300 pills recovered from a suspect, Halilu Abubakar, at Namtari checkpoint.
In Zamfara, operatives, with support from Community Protection Guards, intercepted a truckload of skunk along the Gummi-Daki Takwas road on September 20. The haul weighed 1,099.4 kilograms packed in 109 bags, with the 40-year-old driver, Hammed Danladi Aliyu, taken into custody.
The Agency’s operations also extended to Yobe, Taraba, and Edo. In Yobe, suspects Babangida Usman and Ismail Ibrahim were arrested along Damaturu-Potiskum road with 14,000 tramadol capsules. In Taraba, operatives nabbed 28-year-old Anas Hamisu with 25.525 kilograms of skunk at Garba-Chede, Bali LGA. Meanwhile in Edo, NDLEA officers destroyed cannabis farms covering 4.532 hectares in Atororo forest, Owan West LGA, with an estimated yield of over 11,330 kilograms. Eleven bags of processed skunk weighing 148 kilograms were also recovered, while three suspects – Mathew Onoja, 56; Moses Thomas Male, 18; and Friday Uchenjin, 38 – were arrested at the plantation.
Even as enforcement intensified, NDLEA continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization campaign across the country, holding lectures in Sokoto, Katsina, Jigawa, Benue, and Kano schools, while the Zone 11 Command paid an advocacy visit to Enugu State First Lady, Mrs. Nkechinyere Mbah.
Commending the operatives, Brig. Gen. Marwa vowed to sustain the crackdown. “These arrests and seizures represent a significant milestone in our determined effort to dismantle drug trafficking organizations operating in Nigeria and around the world, prioritizing those bent on targeting our productive youth population with illicit substances until they’re no longer able to inflict harm on our communities or misrepresent our country’s image in the global space,” he said.
The NDLEA boss urged officers nationwide to remain relentless, stressing the Agency’s “balanced approach to drug control through enforcement and sustained public education.”
