Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested a 75-year-old grandfather, Usman Bokina Bajama (alias Clemen) alongside 21 other suspects in operations across seven states.
The spokesman of the agency, Femi Babafemi, said on Sunday in Abuja that during the operations, 1,001,387 bottles/capsules of banned new psychoactive substance, Akuskura, and tramadol as well as 2,536kgs of hemp were seized while over 10 hectares of its farms were destroyed in Edo and Adamawa states.
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According to him, the septuagenarian was arrested on September 20 at Anguwan Sate, Mararraban Tola, Mayo Belwa council area of Adamawa where he had a hemp plantation from where 49kgs of the illicit substance was recovered.
In Kwara State, at least 19,878 bottles of Akuskura were intercepted by NDLEA operatives along Ilorin-Jebba highway on September 21 and two suspects, Oladokun Oluwaseun, 49, and Ibrahim Jimoh, 27, were arrested.
“They claimed the consignment, packed in 35 jumbo sacks, was loaded in Ibadan, Oyo State, and meant for distribution in Jos, Plateau State,” Babafemi said.
Earlier, two suspects, Ukoro Ifeanyi, 46, and Idowu Toyosi, 20, were arrested with 2,290 capsules of tramadol and 100 bottles of codeine-based syrup at Mararaba park, Ilorin, Kwara State. The drugs were brought from Onitsha, Anambra State.
In Lagos State, NDLEA operatives acting on credible intelligence intercepted a Volvo truck loaded with 2,146kgs of cannabis at Sangotedo area of Ajah and three suspects Abdulazeez Rasheed, Afeez Raheem and Moshood Suleiman, were arrested.
Similarly, a total of 979,119 capsules of expired pregabalin weighing 733kgs were recovered from Musbahu Ya’u, 28, and five others at Dansarai area of Kano State, while in Enugu State, 197.8kgs of cannabis was recovered from a store at New Market, Enugu on September 20.
In the same vein, 117.7kgs of the psychoactive substance was intercepted along Okene-Abuja expressway in a truck coming from Lagos to Abuja.