A 20-year-old hair stylist, Josephine Odunu, and a dispatch rider, Edesemi Ikporo, 30, have been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for selling and distributing illicit drug-laced chin-chin to school students and at social parties in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital.
The Director of Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, revealed this in a statement issued on Sunday.
Babafemi said NDLEA officers on patrol around Opolo area of Yenagoa had on March 10, 2024 intercepted Edesemi and recovered 200grams of chin-chin produced with cannabis sativa.
He was heading to deliver the package to the buyer.
A swift follow up operation led to the arrest of Odunu, who distributes the drugged chin-chin from the salon where she works in the Kpansia area of Yenagoa.
A search of the salon also led to the recovery of 3kg of the product, bringing the total weight of the illicit substance seized from the duo to 3.2kg.
Investigations reveal that they distribute the chin-chin often laced with cannabis and tramadol to students and at birthday parties.
While Edesemi handles the delivery to buyers, Odunu is a major distributor to a wanted suspect who produces the drugged chin-chin.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Adamawa State on March 13, 2024 arrested two wanted suspects: Ajim Samuel (aka Boss), 30, and Davidson John Joshua (aka Dantala), 36, while on their way from Onitsha, Anambra State, where they had gone to buy a consignment of tramadol containing 14, 428 pills of the opioid, which they tucked in the body compartments of their black Honda Civic car marked YLA 623 SL.
They were nabbed along Numan-Jalingo Road. Also recovered from them were 21grams of cannabis and monetary exhibits totaling N19,280.
In Osun State, a commercial bus driver, Ogunleye Adegoke, 49, was arrested along Gbongan-Ibadan Road after NDLEA operatives discovered 2,000 capsules of tramadol, 60 tablets of rohypnol and 10 bottles of codeine syrup concealed in the spare tyre compartment of his vehicle.
While a total of 343,000 pills of opioids were seized by NDLEA officers from a suspect, Lawan Abubakar, 33, in Azare town, Katagum, Bauchi State on March 15, same day the Nigerian Army transferred a suspect, Muhammadu Rabi’u, 37, with 64,000 pills of tramadol recovered from him to the Bauchi State Command of the NDLEA.
At least, 24kg of cannabis was seized from the driver of a transport company, Ikechukwu Obialo, at Sagamu Interchange, Ogun State by NDLEA operatives on March 13, while in Kano, two suspects: Ali Amadu, 27, and Adamu Hassan, 33, were nabbed with a total of 125.3kg cannabis; 3,400 pills of tramadol; and 30 bottles of codeine syrup.
They were arrested on March 11 at Gadar Tamburawa area and March 15 at Tsamiya Babba, Hotoro respectively.
While 118 kilograms of cannabis were recovered from a warehouse in Masaka area of Nasarawa State on March 16, NDLEA operatives in Edo State on March 14 arrested a suspect, Kole Samuel, 50, with 75kg of same psychoactive substance at market area, Otuo, Owan East Local Government Area.
Same day, operatives raided the Oloma-Okpe forest in Akoko Edo LGA, where they destroyed 3,944.2075 kilograms of cannabis on 1.577683 hectares of farmland.
With the same vigour, the various commands of the Agency across the country continued the War Against Drug Abuse advocacy campaign in the past week.
Some of them included WADA sensitisation lecture for students and teachers of Government Day Secondary School, Michika, Adamawa State; students and staff of Nana Aisha Secondary School, Damaturu, Yobe State; students of Dee Unique International School, Abesan, Ipaja, Lagos State; and students and staff of Purple Crown Secondary School, Uwani, Enugu State as well as a WADA advocacy visit to the paramount ruler of Alesa -Eleme kingdom, Emperor JD Nkpe 11, Rivers State.
While commending the officers and men of the Bayelsa, Adamawa, Osun, Bauchi, Nasarawa, Edo, Kano, and Ogun Commands of the Agency for their outstanding feats in the past week, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd), equally applauded their counterparts in all the commands across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures, thus creating a fair balance between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction efforts.
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