By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja have arrested two Europe-based Nigerian businessmen, who attempted to traffic cocaine to Paris, France.
The arrest was detailed in a statement issued by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi.
The suspects, Aliocus Godian Odife and Sam Blackborn, were intercepted on Wednesday, October 28, during the outward clearance of Air France flight AF 832 from Abuja to Paris.
Following their arrest, both men excreted a total of 200 wraps of cocaine weighing 3.460 kilograms.
Odife, who resides in France and works in a factory, arrived in Nigeria for a holiday on October 21. NDLEA officers apprehended him at the airport after a body scan confirmed the presence of foreign objects in his stomach.
During interrogation, he admitted to ingesting 110 pellets of cocaine, which he later excreted under observation, yielding 1.901 kilograms of the substance.
On the same flight, Blackborn was nabbed at the departure hall after a body scan similarly detected swallowed illicit drugs.
It added that he confessed to ingesting 90 pellets of cocaine, which weighed 1.559 kilograms upon excretion.
In addition to the Abuja airport arrests, NDLEA teams conducted coordinated operations across several states, seizing large quantities of illicit substances and weapons.
In Lagos State, acting on intelligence regarding the movement of cannabis, operatives intercepted a Volkswagen LT 28 bus along Kudirat Abiola Way, Ikeja, on Sunday, October 25, recovering 537 kilograms of skunk. On the same day, officers seized 439 kilograms of the substance from a J5 bus along the Gbagada–Oshodi expressway.
Also, in Oyo State, operatives arrested Oguntona Nasiru, 46, and Soji Balogun, 47, on Thursday, October 29, along the Idere road in Igboora while loading 554 kilograms of skunk into a truck. The operation targeted a suspected drug dealer known as “Omo Oba,” who had previously evaded arrest when officers seized 309.5 kilograms of “Ghanaian Loud” linked to him.
Similarly, inKano State, on Monday, October 26, a raid in the Tsamiya area of Gezawa yielded 247,500 tablets of diazepam weighing 57.7 kilograms and 100,000 tablets of Exol-5 weighing 38.7 kilograms. Two days later, officers arrested Ziya’ulhaq Abdullahi, 35, and Garba Muhammed, 52, in the Dorayi area with 19,250 pills of tramadol weighing 13.6 kilograms.
Equally, in Kaduna Statez operatives along the Abuja–Kaduna expressway arrested Aisha Isah at a toll gate with 266 rounds of live AK-47 ammunition.
It revealed that on the Zaria–Kano expressway at Gwargwaje, Zaria, officers arrested 68-year-old Ifeanyi Egwolonwu with 2,770 ampoules of pentazocine injection, 100 ampoules of diazepam injection, 11,000 tablets of diazepam, and 4,500 tablets of Exol-5. Another raid in Tashan Banke led to the arrest of seven suspects, including Faisal Adamu, and the recovery of 178.85 kilograms of cannabis alongside assorted prescription drugs.
Furthermore, in Ondo State, operatives raided cannabis plantations in the Ijare forest on Sunday, October 25, arresting four suspects, including Bassey Okon, 24; Abraham Edet, 20; and Oto Udo, 24. They recovered 16 bags of processed cannabis weighing 180 kilograms.
The agency disclosed that in Edo State, a joint operation between the NDLEA and military personnel on Wednesday, October 28, destroyed a 1.646-hectare cannabis plantation with an estimated yield of 4,115.53 kilograms at Eko Camp in Ilushi, Esan South-East Local Government Area. Officers arrested 50-year-old Christiana Uboi with 301 kilograms of processed cannabis, while recovering an additional 176 kilograms during the raid.
Also, it revealed that in Sokoto State, the zone 7 Command operatives arrested 68-year-old Ibrahim Ayuba on Saturday, October 31, with 236.6 kilograms of skunk.
Alongside enforcement actions, NDLEA commands across the country continued War Against Drug Abuse sensitization lectures at several educational institutions, including Obawole Grammar School II in Ojodu, Lagos; Nsukka High School in Enugu; Government Technical College in Gwale, Kano; and Ajagbe Comprehensive High School in Iperu, Ogun State.
Commending the officers involved in the operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), declared that the interception of the two drug couriers at the Abuja airport serves as a warning to individuals attempting to hide behind foreign residence status to traffic illicit drugs across Nigerian borders.
He urged officers across all state commands to maintain momentum in dismantling drug cartels while expanding community sensitization efforts nationwide.
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