A 70-year-old grandfather, Fidelis Egede, along with three other individuals, has been apprehended by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ogun State for allegedly cultivating cannabis. The arrest took place on Tuesday, August 13, during a raid on a six-hectare cannabis plantation in Alaka village.
Femi Babafemi, the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, released a statement on Sunday identifying the other suspects as Samuel Sylvanus, Jato Samson, and Francis Blessing. The suspects were detained during the operation, which targeted the large-scale cannabis farm in the area.
In addition to the arrests in Ogun, the NDLEA carried out several other significant operations across the country. On Monday, August 12, in Kano, two individuals, Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol in the Gadar Tamburawa area.
Another major seizure occurred at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex in Onne, Rivers State, where NDLEA operatives, in collaboration with Nigeria Customs and other stakeholders, confiscated 892,400 bottles of codeine-based syrup. The haul, valued at over N6.2 billion, was discovered in five containers shipped from India. The bottles, weighing a total of 133,860 kilograms, were packed in 5,337 cartons.
In Ekiti State, on Wednesday, August 14, NDLEA agents, supported by the Nigerian Army, other security forces, and local youths, raided the Ise forest reserve, specifically Saalaja camp in Ise-Ekiti. During this operation, they destroyed 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa spread across 20 hectares of farmland. The following day, Thursday, August 15, NDLEA officers on patrol along the Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus carrying 200.2 kilograms of cannabis, leading to the arrest of the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41.
In Abuja, NDLEA officers patrolling the Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday, August 13, intercepted a truck transporting 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection. Three suspects—Ifеanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul, and Edet Ubokobong—were arrested during this operation.
Meanwhile, in Niger State on Thursday, August 15, NDLEA operatives arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town with 28,500 tramadol pills concealed inside a loudspeaker. In a related operation in Kogi State, on Wednesday, August 14, another suspect, Abba Yakubu, was apprehended with 40,000 tramadol pills en route to Kontagora. Additionally, Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested in Lokoja on Thursday, August 15, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.
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