The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), made no mistake in putting on ground officers and men of the Agency at the onset of Lekki Deep Sea Port, Lagos State. Conscious of the NDLEA presence at the fastest growing sea port in Nigeria, drug traffickers had to bid their time before taking a gamble with their deadly drug merchandise through the port.
The drug merchants were now ready to try their luck, after a long wait, only to run into the waiting hands of the counter-narcotic Agency.
In two quick succession of successful operations, the Agency has cleared the doubts of drug traffickers that there is no thoroughfare in Lekki Port for drug trafficking.
First was on October 11, 2024 when upon a tip off, a 40 feet container from Karachi, Pakistan was brought down at the port for thorough examination. It was a bad sight to behold as the container was stockpiled with hundreds of cartons of assorted illicit Tramadol. In this operation, the Agency recovered 389 Cartons of 225 milligrams of Tramadol. This is more than 100 percent above the permissible threshold of Tramadol allowed in the market. A total of 389 Cartons of the illicit substance weighing 16 tons were averted from wreaking havoc on the citizenry.
Again on November 5, 2024, another 40 feet Container of Tramadol was intercepted where 360 Cartons were recovered. This time, the tablets were 250 milligrams, which is very much higher than the permissible threshold.
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The two drug imports followed a similar pattern. The drugs were concealed in brown cartons, while each carton is wrapped with a grey and black sack bags hauled into the two by forty containers via vessels with the same Karachi, Pakistan origin. The containers bore false declarations of building materials and auto-parts respectively. The drugs were destined for the Nigeria illicit drug market.
Jonah Achema, erstwhile spokesperson of the Agency and Area Commander, NDLEA Lekki Deep Sea Port Special Area Command, noted that the Command’s onslaught is consistent with General Marwa’s declaration of war against drug merchants and his operational promise to disrupt and dismantle the availability, affordability and accessibility of harmful drugs. According to Achema, the operations at the port have succeeded in pulling out 30 tons, totalling 52,827,900 tablets of Tramadol, capable of ruining millions of lives.
This has also saved the economy of fiscal pressure and distortions as the monetary street value of the drugs seized amounted to over N9 billion, an amount that is in excess of many states’ monthly internally generated revenue.
“This is better appreciated when juxtaposed with the crave for Tramadol by terrorists and bandits,” Achema noted. He warned drug traffickers to desist from the illicit trade because the Agency has perfected measures with proven capacity and capability to spot any deadly container upon take-off from the source country.
The Command is also leveraging on the synergy with sister Agencies at the Port. The Memorandum of Understanding between NDLEA and Nigeria Customs Service has been helpful in intelligence sharing and joint operations.
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