The 45-year-old physically challenged was allegedly using his wheelchair as cover to deal in illicit substances, including methamphetamine and cannabis in Afuze, headquarters of Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State.
This was stated in a press release by the NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, detailing the activities of the agency in the past week.
It was disclosed that the physically challenged suspect was arrested last Tuesday at his base in Afuze following credible intelligence.
“A wooden box used to conceal illicit substances including 18 pinches of methamphetamine, one block and 71 wraps of cannabis, was recovered from him when he was arrested,” it was stated.
In other interdiction operations in Edo State, NDLEA operatives, last Monday, recovered 42 bags of cannabis weighing 480kgs from a camp in Aviosi Forest in Owan West Local Government Area.
Also, 231.5kgs of the substance were recovered and a cannabis farm measuring 0.778960 hectare destroyed during a raid of the Utese Forest in Ovia North East Local Government Area of the state, same day.
In Adamawa State, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Ngurore-Yola Road, last Thursday, intercepted a Toyota Corolla car marked TZG 97 KY.
The car was loaded with 30, 899 Tramadol 225mg and 100mg pills concealed inside the body compartments of the car.
The driver, found in possession of the drug exhibits, 25-year-old Sani Samaila (a.k.a Isa Male), said he was bringing the consignment from Jalingo, Taraba State to deliver in Yola, Adamawa State.
The previous day, Wednesday, a suspect, Abdullahi Sani (a.k.a Danfulani) was arrested at Ngurore Town.
The suspect was allegedly in possession of some quantity of dried weeds suspected to be cannabis sativa in a white nylon.
Sani thereafter led NDLEA operatives on a follow up operation to the home of a drug lord, Alhaji Bubakari (a.k.a Dan Mamuda), an unrepentant ex-convict, where 19 blocks of compressed cannabis that weighed 13kgs were recovered.
In Ogun State, not less than 18.875 tons of cannabis sativa on 7.55 hectares farmland were destroyed and another 100 jumbo bags weighing 1,100 kilograms of the psychoactive substance recovered at James Town, Ogunmakin area of Obafemi Owode Local Government Area, last Monday.
This followed an operation by a combined team of NDLEA operatives with officers and men of the Nigerian Army, Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps, Defence Intelligence Agency and the state security network, Amotekun.
Okpor Chukwuma and six other suspects, all males, found on the farmland at James Town were arrested.
A commercial bus driver, Olayinka Sowo (25), was arrested last Friday along Ibadan-Akure Expressway over alleged conspiracy to transport 45.150kgs cannabis from Lagos to Osun State.
NDLEA officers in Abuja on same day intercepted 7, 980 pills of diazepam and 567 bottles of codeine syrup in a commercial bus along Abaji-Abuja Highway.
A follow up operation thereafter at Zuba Motor Park led to the arrest of the owner of the consignment, Ugwu Ikenna (30).
In Delta State, NDLEA operatives, backed by men of the Nigerian Army, stormed a remote forest in Umuchime Community, Ndokwa West Local Government Area.
12.5 tons of cannabis on five hectares of farmland were destroyed and 53.22kgs processed weeds and seeds of the substance were recovered during the operation.
A suspect, Christopher Anim (alias Ogidi) was also arrested in the course of the operation.
Two suspects -Amarachukwu Eugene (32) and Abdulaziz Auwal (25) -were arrested in another operation by operatives in Kano, last Tuesday, with 202 blocks of cannabis weighing 113.1kgs seized from them.
In the same vein, NDLEA commands across the country intensified their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy lectures.
These include: WADA sensitisation lecture for students of Government Commercial Secondary School, Wudil, Kano State;
WADA advocacy visit to Zamfara state governor, Dr. Dauda Lawal in Gusau;
WADA sensitisation lectures for students of George Burton Memorial School, Ilesa, Osun State and Kenneth Dike Secondary School, Awka, Anambra State, among others.
Chairman/CEO of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), has commended the officers and men of the Edo, Ogun, Osun, Adamawa, Delta, and FCT commands of the agency for their balanced efforts in the past week.
He equally applauded their counterparts across the country for intensifying their WADA advocacy lectures, thus creating parity between their drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction activities.
