Nationwide Offensive Action: NDLEA Combs Edo Forests

<p><em>Nationwide <strong>offensive<&sol;strong> action<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> <&sol;strong>reports that operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency&comma; NDLEA&comma; continued their nationwide &OpenCurlyQuote;offensive action’ against drug traffickers in the past week&comma; seizing hundreds of kilograms of illicit substances at the airports&comma; courier firms&comma; hideouts and destroying hectares of cannabis farms in the remote forests&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;This is contained in a statement signed by Femi Babafemi&comma; NDLEA<br &sol;>&NewLine;Director&comma; Media &amp&semi; Advocacy and made available to NAOSRE on Sunday&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the statement&comma; attempts by a female passenger&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Isesele Obehi<&sol;a> and one Emmanuel Chibuzor Omebere to export illicit drugs to Europe through the Murtala Mohammed International Airport&comma; MMIA&comma; Lagos and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport&comma; Abuja were thwarted by narcotic officers who arrested them shortly before they boarded their flights&period; While Isesele was nabbed on Saturday 11th September&comma; 2021 during outward clearance of Ethiopian Airline flight at Gate B departure hall of the Lagos airport on her way to Milan&comma; Italy with three hundred and twelve &lpar;312&rpar; sachets of Tramadol&comma; weighing 1&period;5kg&comma; concealed in crayfish and dried vegetables&comma; Chibuzor was equally caught with 137&period;45 grams of the same drug concealed in foodstuff at the Abuja airport on Thursday 2nd Sept during outward clearance of Turkish Airline flight to Istanbul&comma; Turkey&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In the same vein&comma; efforts by desperate traffickers to export varying sizes of consignments containing cocaine&comma; heroin and other illicit drugs through courier firms were also foiled&period; Some of these include 475grams of heroin concealed in food items going to Canada&semi;<br &sol;>&NewLine;202grams of cocaine hidden in body cream containers going to Australia&semi; 720grams of Cannabis Sativa tucked in computer hard drives heading to United Arab Emirates&comma; UAE and another 2&period;1kg of cannabis hidden in body cream bottles going to Oman&comma; while 60grams of cocaine concealed in degree certificates meant for Australia was also seized&comma; all from three courier firms in Lagos&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Curiously&comma; a 38-year-old pregnant woman&comma; Kate Ngozi Nwuju was arrested on Tuesday 14th Sept at her residence in Rumueme&comma; Mile 4 area of Port Harcourt&comma; Rivers state with 4&period;5kilograms of cannabis following intelligence that she sells drugs&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Also&comma; one Aliyu Saidu&comma; suspected to be a fake soldier was arrested with 2&period;3kg of Cannabis Sativa in a commercial bus from Lagos to Makurdi&comma; on Monday 13th of Sept at Aliade checkpoint&comma; Benue State&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In Kano&comma; one Shuaibu Yusuf&comma; was arrested on Friday 17th Sept with 537kg of cannabis sativa&comma; concealed among bags of cement in a truck&comma; while in Ogun state&comma; five persons were arrested on Tuesday 14th Sept after their truck conveying 552kg cannabis was intercepted at Ogere Remo&comma; along Lagos-Ibadan expressway&period; In a related development&comma; narcotic officers on motorised patrol on Friday 17th Sept&comma; arrested a 21-year-old Law Ubi at Marian Road&comma; Calabar&comma; Cross River state with 67&period;4 kg cannabis while a follow up search of his residence the following day&comma; Saturday&comma; led to the recovery of 4&period;2grams of Cocaine from his apartment&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In Edo&comma; operatives stormed remote forests in Ovia North East area of the state between 8th and 16th Sept&comma; destroyed over 14 hectares of cannabis farms&comma; and recovered 172&period;6kg of cannabis&period; Three female and a male suspects were also arrested in raids across Owan East and Akoko Edo areas of the state&period; Different quantities of cannabis and local mixtures called monkey tail were recovered from them&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Commending the officers and men of the Lagos airport&comma; Abuja airport&comma; Benue&comma; Kano&comma; Ogun&comma; Rivers&comma; Cross River and Edo commands as well as those of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation&comma; DOGI&comma; of the Agency for maintaining the heat on drug dealers&comma; Chairman&sol;Chief Executive of NDLEA&comma; Brig&period; Gen&period; Mohammed Buba Marwa &lpar;Retd&rpar; said their efforts &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;further reaffirm our determination that those in this criminal trade will always have the new NDLEA to contend with&semi; whether in their homes&comma; on the streets&comma; at the ports and deep in the forests&comma; we’ll chase them with every legitimate force and smoke them out&comma; up to the last man or woman if they fail to repent&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;