NDLEA arrests security officer, 6 others ‘selling drugs to varsity students, cultists’ in Ogun

*Uncovers heroin in Pakistan-returnee’s anus at Lagos airport

*Nigeria to truly get free from drug abuses as security men involved focused – Citizens

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

While commending the Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Commands of the Agency for sustaining the offensive action against illicit drug trafficking and the cartels running it, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), warned that the agency will not spare any law enforcement agent hiding under the privilege of his uniform to engage in narcotic criminal business.

As the Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa-led National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) waxes stronger and further in its war against illicit drug trafficking in Nigeria, the agency has achieved yet another feat with its harvest of arrests including of one Popoola Abayomi, a serving officer of a law enforcement agency, for allegedly selling assorted illicit drugs to students of a Federal university and cultists in Ogun State.

Mr. Femi Babafemi, the Director, Media and Advocacy, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Abuja on Sunday and copy of which he sent to The DEFENDER.

He, however, did not name the security agency the suspected officer is attached to, neither did he name the Federal university in Ogun State whose students he (the officer) served with his sales of drugs.

According to Babafemi, the drug dealer, who serves in the Lagos State Command of the security agency, was arrested on Wednesday 15th June, 2021 after days of surveillance on his wife’s shop used as his sales point in Camp area of Abeokuta.

One of his salesmen, a motorcycle rider known as Ogah, was trailed to the location at about 8pm and arrested with six pinches of Colorado weighing 1.17grams before Popoola, who has been on the Agency’s watch list, was nabbed with different illicit drugs including codeine -17 bottles; cannabis – 22.26 grams; tramadol 230 – 98 grams; 61 tablets of flunitrazepam -23.72 grams; 113 tablets of molly – 48.16 grams and sex drops – 43.92 grams, the NDLEA Spokesman said.

“After the arrest of the two suspects, some student union officials of the institution blocked the NDLEA team with their official vehicle. The narcotic agents however restrained themselves and after hours of standoff succeeded in moving the suspects to custody.”

In the same vein, he said, “one Adelodun Kamaldeen has been arrested by operatives of the Oyo state Command of the Agency at General Area, Ilorin, Kwara State following the interception of a parcel containing cocaine and heroin that weighed 10.5 grams and 4.8 grams respectively on 13th June.”

He said, “The following day, two ladies; Mary Peter, 40, and Mercy Oladele, 39, were arrested at Total Garden, Ibadan when NDLEA operatives acting on a tip-off, intercepted their commercial micra car. The two women were arrested with seven bags of cannabis weighing 77.23kg brought in from Ogbese, Ondo State, to supply a man they simply identified as Alhaji. According to them, they had earlier supplied the same Alhaji two bags before coming with the seven bags they were caught with.

“On Friday 18th June, operatives of the Oyo state Command acting on intelligence also raided the residence of one Alhaji Faruq at Elebu area, Akala expressway, Oluyole LGA, Ibadan, where they recovered 43 ampoules of methylphenidate.

“In Kaduna state, a drug trafficker, Segun Abraham was arrested at Panteka area of the state on 17th June with 211.500kg of skunk heading to Kano state.”

In the meantime, a Nigerian returning from Pakistan, Ezenyeche Kingsley Ebuka, has equally been arrested by NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airpirt (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos with five pellets of heroin weighing 250 grams discovered in his anus.

“The suspect had arrived the ‘D’ arrival hall of the airport on 14th June on Turkish airline flight from Pakistan with the illicit drug inserted in his anus. He however failed to beat the eagle eyes of narcotic officers during inward clearance of passengers on the flight,” the statement detailed.

While commending the Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna and the Murtala Muhammed International Airport Commands of the Agency for sustaining the offensive action against illicit drug trafficking and the cartels running it, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), warned that the agency will not spare any law enforcement agent hiding under the privilege of his uniform to engage in narcotic criminal business.

“Those who think they can sabotage ongoing efforts to rid Nigeria of the menace of illicit drug trafficking and abuse hiding behind the façade of their uniforms should better think twice because they’ll have NDLEA to contend with. We’ll not only arrest and expose them but we’ll equally prosecute them and seize all assets acquired through the proceeds of their criminal act”, Gen. Marwa warned.