A 90-year-old retired soldier, Usman Adamu has been arrested on Wednesday 3rd August in Mailalle, Sabon Birni LGA of Sokoto.
According to NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi, he was arrested by men of the agency for supplying illicit drugs to bandits.
He said the suspect was caught with 5.1kg cannabis sativa at the time of his arrest.
Similarly, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, a 37-year-old indigene of Ovia LGA, Edo State and resident in Italy; Solo Osamede has been arrested for ingesting 41 wraps of heroin.
He was nabbed and taken into custody for excretion while attempting to board a Turkish Airline flight to Milan, Italy via Istanbul, Turkey on Saturday 30th July.
The swallowed wraps of the illicit drug were recovered in four excretions, which the suspect completed on Monday 1st Aug.
In the same vein, a female passenger Jatau Lydia Lami was arrested at the Lagos airport for attempting to export 1,700 tablets of Tramadol 225mg concealed in her luggage to Istanbul, Turkey via a Turkish Airline flight on Sunday 31st July.
Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspect, a mother of three, hails from Zango Kataf LGA, Kaduna State and lives in Istanbul, Turkey with her family.
She blamed her action on pressure to raise N5million ransom to free her mother from the captivity of bandits who kidnapped her since June.
Also at the SAHCO export shed of the airport, attempts by some freight agents to export two consignments of cannabis in a consolidated cargo to Dubai, UAE on Thursday 4th Aug were thwarted by NDLEA operatives who have arrested two of them in follow up operations.
They are: Oladipupo Oladapo Fatai and Animashaun Qudus, while two others are still at large.
In Zamfara, NDLEA operatives on Thursday 4th Aug intercepted a truck from Benin, Edo state enroute Sokoto with 50,000 tablets of Diazepam owned by a drug dealer, Umaru Attahiru, while in Kogi, 14 sacks containing 1,376 bottles of codeine based syrup weighing 190.4kg were seized along Okene-Abuja highway on Wednesday 3rd Aug.
The exhibits were found in a delivery bus coming from Onitsha, Anambra and heading to Abuja. Follow up operation in Abuja same day led to the arrest of Jude Ikenna and Ozoemene Cornelius.
In Kaduna, four suspects: Sulaiman Rabi’u; Sanusi Sha’aibu; Ma’aruf Habibu and Christian Nnachor, were arrested in Zaria, Tafa and Romi Kaduna with 106, 770 tablets of Tramadol 225mg, Diazepam, Exol-5 and 100 bottles of codeine cough syrup.
In Enugu, 143.5kg cannabis sativa was recovered from locked up stores in new market area of the state capital on Saturday 6th Aug, while in Delta, a suspect, Ike Okparachi, 42, was arrested at Abraka Junction, Asaba with 10,550 tablets of Tramadol 225mg; Swinol; Rohypnol; and 3,105 bottles of codeine syrup as well as 69grams of Molly.
Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers and men of the Akwa Ibom, MMIA, Sokoto, Zamfara, Kogi, Delta, Enugu, and Kaduna Commands of the Agency as well as those of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation, DOGI for their recent feats.
He charged them and others across the country to remain focused and vigilant.
