While trying to recover illegal substances hidden inside imported pressure equipment, 42-year-old building engineer Egwu Phillip Inya was arrested by National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents.
Punch Online claims that the arrest occurred at Okeyson Motor Park in Enugu on Monday, December 2, 2024, and was verified in a statement by Femi Babafemi, the Director of Media and Advocacy for the NDLEA.
Inya was apprehended gathering three pressure cookers that held 7.4 kg of the synthetic cannabis strain Loud.
The notification stated that on November 29, 2024, the package reached Lagos’s Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA).
NDLEA’s MMIA Strategic Command followed the package through customs clearance and to a logistics storage outside the airport in response to intelligence.
The shipment was originally scheduled to be picked up there, but the pickup destination was abruptly moved to Enugu. When Inya arrived to pick up the package, NDLEA agents stopped him and took him into custody as part of a follow-up operation.
In a separate operation, NDLEA officials in Adamawa State stopped a Siena car carrying 511,000 tramadol pills close to Hildi, Askira Uba, on Friday, December 6. When the passengers realized the agents were pursuing them, they got out of the car.
“NDLEA agents recovered no fewer than 511,000 tramadol pills inside a Siena car at Hildi, Askira Uba, Adamawa State,” the release explained. When the passengers realized they were being followed, they fled the car with the cargo after spotting the NDLEA patrol unit.
Two suspects, Babatunde Kayode Ijadahun, 55, and Olanrewaju Alale, 48, were also taken into custody by NDLEA operatives in Ekiti State. They were apprehended on the Ise-Emure Road with 1,323 kg of cannabis in a J5 bus.
The NDLEA’s continuous attempts to dismantle drug trafficking networks nationwide are demonstrated by these operations.
108 giant bags of cannabis totaling 1,323 kilograms were being transported to Owo, Ondo State, when two suspects, Olanrewaju Alale, 48, and Babatunde Kayode Ijadahun, 55, were apprehended along Ise-Emure Road in a J5 bus with the license plate EPE 958 XJ, the statement continued. They asserted that the shipment would thereafter be transported to the North for distribution. On Friday, December 6, NDLEA agents apprehended another suspect, Adekunle Yusuf, 33, along Idere Road, Igboora, Oyo State, with 704 kilograms of the same psychoactive substance hidden in white sacks.
In Lagos State, more arrests were made. 20.6 liters of codeine-based syrup were recovered when NDLEA agents arrested 65-year-old grandmother Ramata Bola Adeyemo at 62 Odunfa Street, Lagos Island, on December 6.
Alhaji Lawan Manga was also taken into custody on December 5 on Ogundana Street in Ikeja after being found in possession of 1.3 kilograms of tramadol and 4.7 kilograms of cannabis.
According to the statement, on Friday, December 6, NDLEA agents detained 65-year-old Ramata Bola Adeyemo at 62 Odunfa Street, Lagos Island, and found 20.6 liters of codeine-based syrup in her possession.
Alhaji Lawan Manga was also taken into custody in Lagos after being found in possession of 1.3 kg of tramadol and 4.7 kg of cannabis on Thursday, December 5 at Ogundana Street in Ikeja.