The spokesman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, said that the Agency has arrested an ex-convict, Sodade Sunday Eniola, for drug trafficking.
According to Babafemi, Eniola was arrested by operatives of the Tincan Command of NDLEA in June 2024, for drug trafficking, prosecuted and sentenced to four years in prison, but has now been rearrested by officers of the MMIA Strategic Command of the Agency for passport racketeering.
Babafemi said: “When he was convicted by a Federal High Court in Lagos on 14th June 2024, the trial judge gave him an option of paying a N750,000 fine, which he paid and was let go.
“However, in a series of operations in December 2024, NDLEA operatives at the export shed of the Lagos airport intercepted no fewer than 52 passports of different countries from shipments going to Canada, Russia, and other countries concealed in shoe soles and food items.
“Further investigations led to the arrest of four members of three syndicates involved in the racket.”
The arrested suspects include: Sodade Sunday Eniola; Ayinde Saheed Awwal; Salaudeen Afeez Ayode; and Sheriff Adebayo Bamigbade. Both the exhibits and the suspects were on Monday 30th December 2024 handed over to the Zonal Command of the Nigerian Immigration Service in Lagos for further investigation and possible prosecution.
Not less than 316, 800 bottles of codeine-based syrup were recovered from two containers by NDLEA officers at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne Rivers state during a joint examination of the shipments with men of Nigeria Customs and other security agencies on Tuesday 31st December 2024. The seizure followed credible intelligence processed by the Port Harcourt Port Command of the Agency.
In Kano, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday 31st December 2024 raided Mafarki, Dan Dishe area of Dala LG where they recovered 149, 090 pills of tramadol and exol-5 from a local dealer, 45-year-old Ismail Muhammad.
With the same vigour, Commands and formations of the Agency across the country continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization activities to schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities among others in the past week.
These include: WADA sensitisation lecture to traders at Ido-Osi Central Market, Ido Ekiti, Ekiti state; and Muslim faithful during their Juma’at prayer at Birnin Kudu central mosque, Jigawa state, among others.
