THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two elderly men in Abia state for allegedly selling illicit drugs to secondary school students.
News Point Nigeria reports that the suspects, identified as 84-year-old Godfrey Orji and 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, were arrested in separate operations in Umuahia, as the agency intensified its crackdown on drug trafficking across the country.
Femi Babafemi, NDLEA spokesman, in a statement on Sunday, said Obiora was arrested on June 19 following intelligence that he was selling illicit substances to students and other residents from his patent medicine store located on Club Road, Umuahia.
According to the agency, a search of the premises led to the recovery of 4.64 kilogrammes of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.
Babafemi said Orji, a pensioner, was apprehended on June 18 after he was caught by security personnel at Saint Silas Secondary School in Old Umuahia, allegedly supplying drugs to two teenage students.
“The guards thereafter handed them over to the police who in turn transferred them to NDLEA on Thursday 18th June,” he said.
One of the students, a 15-year-old senior secondary school 2 pupil, reportedly told investigators that Orji supplied him with drugs for personal use and resale to other students.
While the two suspects are expected to face prosecution, NDLEA said the teenagers have been placed on counselling and rehabilitation programmes.
NDLEA operatives also intercepted a 9.5 kilogramme consignment of ADB Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid classified as a dangerous new psychoactive substance, at a courier company in Lagos.
According to the agency, the shipment originated from China and was concealed in a carton.
The agency also seized 300 grammes of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, hidden inside ladies’ handbags at another logistics company in Lagos on June 16.
In another operation in Lagos, NDLEA officers raided the residence of a wanted drug suspect named Lukman Badmus, also known as Lukman Ogombo, in the Ogombo area of Ajah on June 19.
Nine bottles of codeine syrup and 30 grammes of skunk were recovered during the raid.
A follow-up operation at a shop belonging to his wife on Lagos Island resulted in the seizure of two additional bottles of codeine, drug paraphernalia and 42 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 22.5 kilogrammes recovered from a minibus parked outside the shop.
In Kogi state, NDLEA officers intercepted a 33-year-old suspect called Tochukwu Onah along the Okene-Lokoja highway, with 1.03 kilogrammes of methamphetamine concealed in custard containers, as he travelled from Lagos to Abuja.
The agency also announced the arrest of a couple, James Tony Chukwudi, 48, and James Kehinde, 35, in Ekiti state. The pair had been wanted in connection with the seizure of 117 kilogrammes of skunk in March and were apprehended after months on the run.
Also in Oyo state, operatives arrested 75-year-old Tudun Olubiyi alongside Nasiru Buhari, 22, and Buba Musa, 47, during a raid in the Dangote area of Elekara, Oyo town.
The operation led to the recovery of 118 jumbo bags containing 1,416 kilogrammes of skunk concealed with sawdust.
The NDLEA also recorded arrests and seizures in Edo state.
The agency said its commands across the country also sustained anti-drug awareness campaigns under the War Against Drug Abuse initiative in schools, communities, workplaces and places of worship during the week.
Buba Marwa, NDLEA chairman, commended officers involved in the arrests and seizures across the country.
He noted that the agency’s drug supply reduction efforts were being balanced with preventive sensitisation campaigns and urged personnel nationwide to remain committed to the fight against illicit drugs.