Buba Marwa, Chairman NDLEA
June 20, 2021
A serving officer of a law enforcement agency, Popoola Abayomi has been arrested by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for selling assorted illicit drugs to students of a Federal University and cultists in Ogun State.
The drug dealer who serves in the Lagos State Command of the security agency (name withheld) was arrested on Wednesday 15th June 2021 after days of surveillance on his wife’s shop used as his sales point in the Camp area of Abeokuta.
One of his salesmen, a motorcycle rider who is known simply as Ogah was trailed to the location at about 8pm and arrested with six pinches of Colorado weighing 1.17grams.
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.
Authorities say 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 a similar vein, one Adelodun Kamaldeen was also 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 10.5grams and 4.8grams respectively on 13th June.
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 the Panteka area of the state on 17th June with 211.500kg of skunk heading to Kano state.
Meanwhile, a Nigerian returning from Pakistan, Ezenyeche Kingsley Ebuka was arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja Lagos with five pellets of heroin weighing 250grams discovered in his anus.
The suspect had arrived at the ‘D’ arrival hall of the airport on 14th June on a 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 the inward clearance of passengers on the flight.
While commending the Ogun, Oyo, Kaduna, and the MMIA Commands of the Agency for sustaining the offensive action against illicit drug trafficking and the cartels running it, Gen. Marwa warned that the NDLEA 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”, he warned.
