NDLEA intercepts Qatar-bound illicit drugs, arrests bandits’ drug ‘supplier’ en route Kebbi

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested Agu Amobi, a businessman based in Qatar, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, for drug trafficking.

In a statement on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesperson, said the suspect was arrested on Saturday at the departure point of terminal two of MMIA while on his way to Doha through a Qatar Airways flight.

He said Amobi(pictured) was apprehended “with 1.30kg cannabis sativa concealed in a bag of foodstuff”.

Babafemi said the suspect claimed he had lived in Qatar for ten years and bought the substance in Enugu to deliver in Doha to enable him to raise enough funds to pay rent and school fees of his three children.

In a similar development on the same day, Uchegbu Obi was arrested with a consignment of 72,000 pills of tramadol at the MMIA.

Obi had reportedly attempted to ferry the illicit drug from Lagos to Kano on a local flight.

The NDLEA also apprehended the trio of Musa Sani, Mohammed Ibrahim and Adamu Usman with a truck conveying 39 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 15.7kg and 128,500 pills of opioids in Yobe.

Babafemi said the arrest was made on Christmas Eve by officers on patrol at Nguru-Gashua road in the state.

“Follow-up operations the following day, 26^th December, led to the arrest of the actual owner of the cannabis consignment, Ali Ibrahim (a.k.a Ramos) in Geidam where additional 208 blocks of the same substance were recovered from his house, bringing the total to 247 blocks weighing 94.74kg, while the owner of the seized opioids, Mustapha Goni (a.k.a Lolo) was equally arrested,” the statement reads.

“In Imo state, NDLEA operatives on Christmas eve, Sunday 24^th December, while on patrol along Owerri – Onitsha expressway intercepted a commercial bus driven by Peter Orji, 42, with 400 bottles of codeine syrup; 7, 590 pills of opioids including tramadol 225mg heading to Port-Harcourt, Rivers State.

“While David Michael, 52, was arrested at Unguwa Ukku area of Kano on Sunday, 24^th December, with 49 blocks of cannabis weighing 42.6kg, Umar Abdullahi, 27, was nabbed with 27, 350 pills of opioids at Gadar Tamburawa area of the city same day. This is even as 45-year-old Yusuf Yahaya was arrested the same Christmas Eve along the Lagos-Ilorin expressway with 31.00kg of compressed cannabis in a commercial bus coming from Ibadan, Oyo state, to Kebbi State.”

Babafemi said preliminary investigation revealed that Yahaya supplied illicit drugs to bandits along the Kebbi and Zamfara axis.