By Deborah Nnamdi
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two elderly men, aged 84 and 75, for allegedly supplying and selling illicit drugs to secondary school students in Umuahia, Abia State.
The suspects, identified as 84-year-old Godfrey Orji and 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, were apprehended in separate operations carried out by NDLEA operatives.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Obiora was arrested on June 19 following intelligence reports linking him to the sale of illicit substances to students and other users from his patent medicine store located at Club Road in Umuahia.
Babafemi said operatives recovered 4.64 kilograms of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam, during a search of the premises.
In a separate incident, Orji, a pensioner, was arrested after he was allegedly caught supplying illicit drugs to students of Saint Silas Secondary School in Old Umuahia.
The suspect was initially apprehended by security personnel at the school alongside two teenage students before being handed over to the police and subsequently transferred to the NDLEA on June 18.
According to the agency, one of the students, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School Two student, admitted during interrogation that Orji regularly supplied him with drugs, which he consumed and resold to other students.
The NDLEA said both elderly suspects would face prosecution, while the students involved had been enrolled in counselling and rehabilitation programmes.
The agency also announced a series of major drug seizures and arrests across the country.
In Lagos State, operatives intercepted a 9.5-kilogram consignment of ADB-Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid classified as a dangerous psychoactive substance, concealed in a carton shipped from China through a courier company.
Another operation led to the seizure of 300 grams of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside ladies’ handbags at a logistics company.
NDLEA officers also raided the residence of a wanted drug dealer, Lukman Badmus, popularly known as Lukman Ogombo, in the Ogombo area of Ajah, Lagos, where codeine syrup and skunk were recovered.
A follow-up operation at his wife’s shop on Lagos Island resulted in the seizure of additional bottles of codeine, drug paraphernalia, and 42 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 22.5 kilograms. The agency said an attempt by the suspect’s wife, Aisha Saraki, to dispose of some drug exhibits during the raid was thwarted.
In Kogi State, operatives intercepted a 33-year-old suspect, Tochukwu Onah, along the Okene-Lokoja Highway with 1.03 kilograms of methamphetamine concealed in custard containers while travelling from Lagos to Abuja.
The agency also confirmed the arrest of two suspects, James Tony Chukwudi, 48, and James Kehinde, 35, who had been declared wanted in connection with the seizure of 117 kilograms of skunk in Ekiti State earlier in the year.
In Oyo State, a 75-year-old suspect, Tudun Olubiyi, alongside Nasiru Buhari, 22, and Buba Musa, 47, was arrested during a raid on a residence in the Elekara area of Oyo Town. Operatives recovered 118 jumbo bags containing 1,416 kilograms of skunk concealed under sawdust.
Similarly, in Edo State, NDLEA officers raided cannabis farms in Khagba Forest, Owan East Local Government Area, destroying 1,744.075 kilograms of cannabis and recovering 169 kilograms of processed skunk.
Another operation at Ebora Camp in Ilushi, Esan South East Local Government Area, led to the destruction of 2,424.945 kilograms of cannabis, while a suspect, Augustine Anyamone, was arrested with 395 kilograms of skunk.
Commending officers involved in the operations, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Mohamed Buba Marwa, praised commands in Abia, Ekiti, Oyo, Lagos, Kogi, and Edo states for the arrests and seizures.
Marwa said the agency’s drug supply reduction efforts were being effectively complemented by its War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaign and urged officers nationwide to sustain the momentum in the fight against drug trafficking and abuse.
