In a remarkable feat in its drive to ensure drug barons and traffickers are thwarted from carrying out their trade, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), have detained a 35-year-old lady, Chidinma Chinenye Agbazue for attempting to export 20 parcels of cannabis sativa weighing 10.70 kilograms.
The illicit drugs were concealed in African salad popularly called “Abacha” and dried vegetables and were met to be exported to Doha, Qatar through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Ikeja, Lagos state.
Disclosing the arrest of the suspect on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, Headquarters Abuja, said that the NDLEA officers at the Lagos airport worked in partnership with men of the Department of State Security on Thursday 28th March intercepted Chidinma, an outbound passenger from Lagos to Doha, on Qatar Airways during clearance of passengers at the screening point of terminal 11 of the MMIA.
Preliminary investigation revealed that Chidinma was based in Qatar but returned to Nigeria last December for Christmas celebration.
She said preparatory to her return to Doha, she was lodged at Club Dice Hotel in Ikotun area of Lagos where the consignment was handed over to her for trafficking to the Arab country.
Two suspects: Monday Okeke and Chigozie Emeka were on Tuesday 26th March arrested by NDLEA operatives in Oniwaya, Yaba and Agege area of Lagos, where they recovered 842,560 pills of opioids especially tramadol from them in addition to 15 litres of codeine syrup and 596 grams of Molly.
Attempt by Okeke to bribe the NDLEA officers with N5 million cash was rebuffed while the money was documented as part of exhibits to prosecute the suspects in court.
While commending the officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Edo, Ogun, Kano, Abia, Bayelsa, Ondo, and Taraba Commands of the Agency for their balanced efforts in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) applauded their counterparts across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures.
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