Abiodun Sanusi
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, on patrol along the Aba-Owerri expressway on Wednesday, September 13, intercepted five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used at a baby factory.
The victims were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in the Naze area of Owerri to the Ikenegbu area of the state capital, the spokesperson for the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi revealed in a statement on Sunday.
“The victims include Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16. In their statements, they claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them. The Imo state command of the agency has since been directed to hand them over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, for further investigations,” Babafemi stated.
Meanwhile, fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of some transnational drug trafficking organisations through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja and courier companies in Lagos State, were again thwarted by operatives of the NDLEA, who intercepted the illicit drug consignments concealed in different items.
At the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, September 12 intercepted an intending passenger, Ugwu Tochukwu, on his way to Oman, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight. Upon a thorough search of his luggage, 7.50 kilogrammes of skunk were discovered concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilogrammes of skunk and 14 grammes of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and soles of ladies’ high heel shoes respectively.
Babafemi added, “While two suspects Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were arrested with 227.1 kgs of cannabis on Tuesday, September 11 at Ikebe village, Ankpa LGA, Kogi state, a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was nabbed with 108 kgs of same substance on Saturday, September 16 in the Ifo area of Ogun State.
“A total of 100 blocks of cannabis weighing 55 kgs and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo of Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday, September 11 along Abuja road have been traced to two other suspects – Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali who were arrested in follow up operations in Kano.
In FCT Abuja, a 27-year-old Kingsley Chimaobi was arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on Tuesday, September 11.
“Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday, September 13 sentenced to five years imprisonment a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi, for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilogrammes of skunk.
“He was arrested on Saturday, July 1, while conveying 89 jumbo bags of the illicit substance in his truck around the Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki. He was subsequently charged in suit number FHC/L/388C/2023 presided over by Justice Akintayo Aluko.”
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