Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted the illicit drug consignments concealed in different items at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMI), Lagos.
Its Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, in a statement issued Sunday said fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of some transnational drug trafficking organisations through MMIA and courier companies in Lagos have again been thwarted by operatives.
According to him, At the Lagos airport on Tuesday, September 12, NDLEA operatives intercepted an intending passenger going to Oman, Ugwu Peter Tochukwu, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight. Upon a thorough search of his luggage, 7.50 kilogrammes of skunk were discovered concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf.
Babafemi added that in the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilogrammes of skunk and 14 grammes of methamphetamine concealed in bags of semovita and the soles of ladies’ high-heeled shoes, respectively.
He added that in Imo state, operatives on patrol along the Aba-Owerri expressway on Wednesday 13th September intercepted five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used as baby factories.
Babafemi noted that they were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in the Naze area of Owerri to the Ikenegbu area of the state capital.
He said the victims include Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16.
Babafemi stressed: “In their statements, they claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them.
“The Imo state command of the Agency has since been directed to hand them over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), for further investigations.
“While two suspects: Moses Akowe, 32, and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were arrested with 227.1kgs of cannabis on Tuesday 11th September at Ikebe village, Ankpa LGA, Kogi state, a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was nabbed with 108kgs of same substance on Saturday 16th September in Ifo area of Ogun state.”