NDLEA arrests drug kingpin, intercepts N7.8b opioids in Delta, Rivers
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said three years after launching a manhunt for a notorious drug kingpin, 36-year-old Sunday Ibigide, over drug trafficking offences, the suspect has been arrested by operatives in Asaba, Delta State.
Director, Media and Advocacy NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, Femi Babafemi, who made this known in a statement, said he was arrested while attempting to move 250 blocks of skunk weighing 138 kilogrammes with his distribution bus.
Babafemi said Ibigide came under searchlight on March 19, 2022 in connection with the seizure of 24.137kg of same psychoactive substance and 10grams of molly but, thereafter, went underground.
However, NDLEA operatives in Delta arrested him along with one of his aides Clement Osuya, 27, while they were trying to move the 250 parcels of skunk for distribution on August 10.
The agency also said no fewer than six suspects were arrested last Thursday and Friday when NDLEA operatives, supported by the military and vigilantes, raided three cannabis farms in Enugu Ezike, Enugu State where a total of 37,500kg skunk was destroyed on 15 hectares of farmland
Ugwuanyi Chinaso, 23; James Negedu, 26; Sopuruchukwu Obido, 22; Ebuka Onu, 30; Ukwueze Sunday, 42; and Oguche Friday; while 74.5kg of the illicit substance was recovered for them.
The statement reads: “While 20,700 pills of tramadol and cocodamol were seized from a suspect Emmanuel Ayogu, 53, by NDLEA officers on patrol along Nsukka Road, 9th Mile Enugu on Saturday, 16th August, two other suspects Nsubechukwu Achidde, 24, and Osiaja Simple Frank, 41, were arrested with 27.6kg skunk same day at the New Market, Enugu.
In Lagos, a woman Muyibat Mumuni, 52, was arrested with her son, Faruk Mumuni, 25, at Ladega Street, Mushin on August 13 for storing and distributing 298 blocks of Ghana Loud weighing 149kg while another suspect Emmanuel Samuel was nabbed on August 15 in Ajah, Lekki where 8.5kg Canadian Loud, a strain of cannabis was recovered from their apartment
“Not less than 128,000 capsules of tramadol were recovered from a suspect Sani Mohammed,32, at Jauro Jatau, Gombe, Gombe State on August 11, while a total of 337, 800 capsules of the same pharmaceutical opioid were seized by operatives on patrol along Okene-Lokoja highway, Kogi State from the driver of a commercial bus, Sulaiman Oyedokun, 47, coming from Onitsha, Anambra State and heading to Kotangora, Niger State.”
