NDLEA Arrests Osun Monarch, Chadian, Youth Corps Member For Drug Trafficking

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has raided the Lagos base of an alleged high-profile cocaine syndicate led by a couple, Mmadu and Chinwe Agbakoba, as well as their associate, Ifeoma Okoye, and recovered large consignments of the class A drug intended for export and local distribution.

According to a statement issued on Sunday by the anti-narcotics agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi, the raid by the agency’s special operations unit came after months of intelligence gathering and surveillance on the syndicate notorious for packaging, distributing, and trafficking cocaine within and outside Nigeria.

Babafemi said the 54-year-old male Agbakoba was arrested at Ago Palace Way, Okota, while his wife, Chinwe, 39, and associate, Okoye Ifeoma, 31, who doubles as their stash keeper, were apprehended at Plot 2205 Eugene Ndubisi Close, Lilly Estate, Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, all on Wednesday.

He stated that while seven parcels of cocaine weighing a total of 7.652 kilogrammes were recovered from Mmadu on Ago Palace Way, one hundred and twenty-two (122) compressed pellets of the same drug weighing 2.42 kilogrammes were seized from the duo of Ijeoma and Ifeoma at Lilly Estate, bringing the total seizure to 10.1 kilogrammes valued at more than N2.1 billion in street value.

In the same vein, NDLEA agents in Benue state intercepted a 350-gram cocaine shipment last Thursday at a checkpoint on the Enugu-Otukpo road. The illegal drug was hidden in an MP3 speaker sent as a waybill parcel. A swift follow-up operation at Flight Motor Park in Otukpo resulted in the arrest of the owner, Odeh Anthony, aged 25.

Also, on a stop-and-search operation along the Ngurore-Yola road in Adamawa state last Wednesday, NDLEA officers arrested Chadian Yves Ahmat Gali in a commercial bus travelling from Kano to Yola. The suspect was discovered with a loudspeaker used to conceal 20 compressed blocks, and nine plastic containers of Loud, a powerful strain of cannabis weighing 5.2 kilogrammes.

In Kano, operatives arrested a youth corps member, Yusuf Abdulrahman, 25, on Wednesday at Corpers Lodge in the city’s Sumaila area, with 1.25 kilogrammes of Loud, while in Osun state, the head of the Akarabata community in Ile-Ife, Ba’ale Ige Babatunde, 50, was arrested on Friday, July, with 5 kilogrammes of fresh cannabis.

Babafemi stated that two suspects, Monday Ali, 49, and Jimoh Alewi, 37, were arrested when NDLEA operatives raided Ikota forest in Ifedore local government area, Ondo state, where a total of 42,500 kilogrammes of cannabis was destroyed on 17 hectares of farmland, with 73.5 kilogrammes of the same substance recovered for the suspects’ prosecution during a five-day operation that concluded last Monday.

Last Saturday, NDLEA operatives arrested Sanusi Mamman, 28, and Usaini Ibrahim, 20, in a vehicle along Abaji-Gwagwalada with 1,132 bottles of codeine syrup, 13,540 pills of tramadol, 50,000 pills of diazepam, and 59 pills of phenol. The suspects claimed they were bringing the opioids from Onitsha in Anambra state.

Babafemi stated that the agency’s commands and formations throughout the country have continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization activities in schools, worship centres, workplaces, and communities, among other places, over the last week.

Meanwhile, while commending the officers and men of the Special Operations Unit, Osun, Benue, Ondo, Kano, and FCT Commands for the arrests and seizures, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Rtd) noted their drug supply reduction efforts balanced with WADA sensitization activities, and he charged them and their compatriots across the country to keep up the pace.