The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it has arrested a 28-year-old woman, Bilkisu Suleman who supplies ammunition to bandits.
The director of media and advocacy at NDLEA Headquarters Abuja, Femi Babafemi, in a statement on Sunday, January 7, said that Suleman came top on the list of 12 other suspects arrested by NDLEA operatives in New Year’s interdiction operations in Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states.
Babafemi said Bilkisu was arrested on Wednesday, January 3rd, by NDLEA officers on patrol along the Zaria-Kano expressway in possession of 249 rounds of 7.62 mm live ammunition concealed in a black nylon bag kept in her lady’s handbag.
The statement read: “She was on her way to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina State, when she was nabbed, after which she was transferred to the Kaduna state command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.
“The military authorities at the Bonny camp cantonment in Lagos on Tuesday, January 2, transferred a suspect, Francis Suru, 37, and 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 2,104.2 kilograms, and a truck to the Lagos state command of NDLEA.
“The suspect and the drug exhibits were earlier intercepted by NDLEA officers on December 12, 2023, close to the gate of the military cantonment in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island. Some armed escorts, however, resorted to sporadic shooting to obstruct the operation, a development that attracted soldiers from the cantonment, who eventually intervened and took custody of the consignment and suspect before transferring them to the agency.”
Babafemi also said at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos, on New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, 2024, intercepted a consignment of Colorado, a very strong strain of cannabis, concealed in boxing kits imported from the United States of America.
He said a week-long intelligence-led operation to get the receiver arrested was consummated on Saturday, January 6, following the successful tracking and arrest of 38-year-old Olorunfunmi Saheed Olakunle who distributes the dangerous psychoactive substance to dealers across Lagos State.
According to the statement, the consignment arrived in the country on January 1st via Cairo on an Egypt Airlines flight marked as boxing kits.
Babafemi said, according to Saheed, he delivers such consignments to different recipients whenever his childhood friend, US-based Sagir Salami, sends them. He said the latest shipment had a total weight of 1.80 kilograms.
Babafemi said in the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Niger state on Thursday 5th January during a stop and search operation along Suleja-Kaduna road intercepted a J5 bus coming from Ondo state to Zaria, Kaduna state with twenty-three (23) bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg.
He said two suspects—Umar Musa, 26—and Isachiru Abubakar—were arrested in connection with the seizure.
He said that a female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested on Saturday, January 6th, in a commercial bus en route in Abuja along the Okene-Lokoja expressway with 12 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 4.6kg and 0.046kg designer drugs concealed in an Indomie carton. Another suspect, Mubarak Sani, 20, was nabbed at the Gadar Tamburawa area of Kano on Monday, January 1st, with 445.9 kg of the same psychoactive substance.
“In Borno, four suspects—Zanna Alhaji Dala, 32; Musa Umar, 21; Mushe Ibrahim, 23, and Shehu Idris, 19—were arrested at Pomfomari bye pass area of the state with 60 kg of cannabis.
Also, in Osun, NDLEA operatives on patrol along the Osogbo-Ode Omu road on New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent through a waybill from Lagos to Osogbo. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of Ibrahim Olawale, 43. The drugs recovered include cannabis sativa (10.8kg; Loud (150 grams), Colorado (19 grams), and Molly (5 grams), totaling 10.974kg. A digital scale, an N18,000 monetary exhibit, and customized wrapping papers for Colorado were also seized.
“NDLEA Commands across the 36 states and the FCT equally continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization lectures in schools, communities, workplaces, and others. Some of these include: a WADA sensitisation lecture for students of Nurul Huda Community Islamiyya School, Farin Yaro, Katsina; members of the first aid group of Jamaatul Izalatul Bidi’a Waiqamatus Sunnah (JIBWIS) at Ajilari Community School, Gomari, Maiduguri, Borno; WADA sensitisation lecture at the 2024 Oke Afo Youth Day, Olorunda LCDA Lagos; and a WADA advocacy visit to the Emir of Gaya, Alhaji Aliyu Ibrahim Gaya by the Kano state command of the Agency.
“Commending the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun Commands, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) charged them and their compatriots across all formations of the agency to continue to remain vigilant and double their drug demand reduction as well as drug supply reduction efforts in the New Year,” the statement reads.