The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, says it has recorded major breakthroughs in its nationwide crackdown on illicit drugs, including the arrest of a 101-year-old woman and the interception of cocaine concealed in edible cassava flour, popularly known as fufu.
The centenarian, identified as Esther Ogunmabo, was arrested in Ilisan, Ogun State, with 90 grams of skunk, a strain of cannabis, which she allegedly sold in retail quantities. NDLEA says the woman claimed she resorted to the drug trade after her provisions shop was destroyed by fire. The agency has directed that she be granted bail and placed on counselling, while her daughter, who allegedly supplied the drugs, was arrested.
In Akwa Ibom State, NDLEA operatives intercepted a wooden boat on the high seas allegedly conveying illicit drugs to fishing settlements in Cameroon. Three suspects were arrested, with a total of 42-point-6 kilograms of narcotics recovered, including 20 grams of cocaine cleverly concealed inside a large wrap of edible cassava fufu.
The agency also announced its first seizure of illicit drugs shipped from Thailand through Nigeria’s maritime corridor. Two containers intercepted at the Apapa and Lekki ports in Lagos contained a combined 1,490-point-5 kilograms of cannabis indica, popularly known as Loud, with an estimated street value of more than four-point-four billion naira.
At Apapa Port, over one-thousand-90 kilograms of Thai Loud was recovered from a container declared to contain dry fish, rice, vehicle spare parts and other items. At the Lekki Deep Sea Port, another 400 kilograms of the substance was discovered concealed among pallets of A4 paper.
Elsewhere, NDLEA operatives intercepted 24,410 tramadol capsules in Abuja and destroyed 10,000 kilograms of cannabis cultivated across four hectares in Ondo State. The agency also reported seizures of methamphetamine, Loud, tramadol, codeine, diazepam and other illicit substances in Oyo, Kwara, Kano, Abia and Lagos States.
NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa, commended officers involved in the operations and urged personnel nationwide to sustain what he described as a balanced approach to the fight against drug abuse, alongside continued public sensitisation under the War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, campaign.
