By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Reporter
DESPERATE EFFORTS to traffic illicit drugs across Nigeria’s borders were crushed last week as operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), arrested multiple suspects, including a woman attempting to smuggle cocaine to Iran by hiding it in her private part, stomach and handbag, and a British ex-convict caught with a large cannabis consignment at Lagos airport.
Ihensekhien Miracle Obehi, disguised in a hijab, was apprehended at Port Harcourt International Airport on Sunday 3 May while attempting to board a Qatar Airways flight to Iran via Doha.
Acting on credible intelligence, NDLEA officers searched her and discovered three wraps of cocaine inserted in her private part, two parcels concealed in a false-bottomed handbag, and 67 pellets she had swallowed.
Under observation, she excreted all 67 pellets over a period of days. She confessed she had intended to swallow 70 pellets but, unable to ingest the last three, opted to insert them instead.
The total weight of the drugs she carried came to 2.523 kilograms.
At Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, 22-year-old British citizen Campell Kaizra Kofi Johannes Slifer was intercepted on Friday 9 May with two suitcases loaded with 35 parcels of Loud, a potent cannabis strain, weighing 37.6 kilograms.
He had arrived from Thailand through Doha on Qatar Airways and admitted he was twice convicted in the UK for robbery and drug trafficking.
He claimed he was recruited in London to collect the consignment from Thailand and bring it into Nigeria.
On Wednesday 7 May, NDLEA officers in Niger State intercepted a fuel tanker and three other vehicles transporting 246 bags of skunk — another strain of cannabis — along the Suleja–Kaduna Road.
The total weight was 3,047 kilograms. Four suspects were arrested: Christopher Onyema, 47; Benedict Etineruba Young, 54; Chukwudi Ujue Jerry, 30; and Mohammed Abdullahi Danasabe.
The vehicles included a fuel truck marked ABJ 693 XU, two Honda Odyssey buses and a Gulf bus.
Further arrests continued across the country.
On Thursday 8 May in Lagos, two suspects, Eze Chekube Emmanuel and Ike Samuel Chinyerem, were caught with 109,914 pills of tramadol, swinol and nitrazepam in the Ijora area.
In Kaduna State on Tuesday 6 May, 52.5 kilograms of skunk were recovered from two young men, Lukman Sabo Umar, 23, and Tukur Ammadu, 20, travelling in a bus at Gwantu, Sanga Local Government Area. A day earlier, along the Bode Saadu–Jebba expressway in Kwara State, Rufai Nasiru was arrested with 45,400 pills of tramadol 225mg.
In Bauchi State, a Toyota Tundra marked RBC 111 DW was intercepted along Bauchi–Gombe road on Tuesday 6 May. Inside were 526 blocks of skunk weighing 505 kilograms.
Two men, Isaac Onogure, 37, and Ikechukwu Peter, 44, were arrested at the scene. In Kano, 31 kegs containing 775 litres of codeine syrup were recovered from Hafizu Isa Uman, 34, and Ismail Shehu, 48, during a raid on their hideout in Rijiyar Zaki area on Saturday 10 May.
On the same day, NDLEA officers in Lagos intercepted a parcel containing 1.1 kilograms of Loud concealed in a pillow and sent from Thailand through a courier service.
While enforcement continued, NDLEA intensified its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) education campaign. Advocacy sessions were held at Federal Government College, Sokoto; Deeper Life International College, Nteje, Anambra; Martins Sanda Girls Science College, Paikoro, Niger; and Restoration Power International School, Idua Eket, Akwa Ibom.
The Oyo State Command also reached out to religious leaders at Iseyin Central Mosque, delivering enlightenment lectures to the League of Imams and Alfas.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retired), commended the agency’s officers in all involved commands for the seizures and arrests.
He praised their commitment to reducing both drug supply and demand across the country, describing their actions as a firm step in disrupting the operations of local and transnational drug cartels.
