NDLEA arrests grandmother, pregnant woman, declares Abuja drug lord ‘Ibrahim Bendel’ wanted

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 60-year-old grandmother and a pregnant woman among others during interdiction operations in which 5,527.15kgs of methamphetamine and Cannabis Sativa, as well as 132,090 tablets of tramadol and 2,000 bottles of codeine, were recovered across five states and the FCT in the past week.

Spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that the grandmother, Mrs Ibinosun Sandra Esther, was arrested in Ibadan, Oyo State in a follow-up operation after the seizure of a 5.5kg ‘Loud’ variant of cannabis imported into the country from South Africa.

According to him, the consignment, which she claimed was sent to her by her daughter was concealed in two giant speakers as part of a consolidated cargo that arrived at the NAHCO import shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos on board an Airpeace airline flight.

Also, NDLEA operatives on Saturday 26th November intercepted 1.4kgs of methamphetamine concealed inside custard tins packed among cosmetics and foodstuffs going to Brazil via Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.

“A cargo agent, Salako Omolara Fausat who brought the bag containing the illicit drug to the airport and an intending passenger to Brazil, Anyanwu Christian who was to travel with the consignment were promptly arrested,” Babafemi said.

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Another attempt by a freight agent, Adebisi Aina Hafsat, to export 3,000 tablets of tramadol concealed in motor spare parts to Banjul, Gambia through the NAHCO export shed was equally thwarted by operatives who seized the consignment and arrested her on Monday 28th November, while a follow-up operation to Ebute-Meta area of Lagos the next day led to the arrest of the actual owner, Afam Chibuke Stanley, a spare parts seller.

This was followed by the seizure of 100,000 tablets of Royal brand of Tramadol 200mg with a gross weight of 68.90 kilograms imported from Karachi, Pakistan on Ethiopian Airlines at the SAHCO import shed.

In Abuja, operatives stormed the warehouse of a notorious drug lord and an ex-convict, Ibrahim Momoh, alias ‘Ibrahim Bendel’, who escaped from prison custody to return to his criminal trade and recovered 81 jumbo bags of cannabis weighing 1,278kgs.

Though the fleeing drug dealer is still at large and is wanted by the agency, his warehouse keeper, 55-year-old Ghanaian, Richard Forson Gordon was arrested.

Ibrahim Momoh was first arrested on 27th November 2014 with the same substance weighing 385.1kgs, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to seven and a half years in prison on April 22, 2020, but escaped from jail after three months.

In Rivers state, operatives on December 3, the agency arrested a 29-year-old pregnant woman, Kate Ibinabo, with 34.4kgs Cannabis Sativa in Okrika area of the state.

The Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), however, directed that she be granted administrative bail pending when she delivered her baby and thereafter return for her prosecution because, at the time of her arrest, she was in her ninth month of pregnancy.