The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has apprehended Bilkisu Suleiman, a 28-year-old female ammunition supplier to bandits, along with other suspects.
Suleiman was arrested last Wednesday, January 3, by NDLEA operatives 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. Others were nabbed in a New Year interdiction in Kaduna, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun states.
Spokesperson for the agency, Femi Babafemi, who confirmed the development, yesterday, said Bilkisu was on her way to deliver the ammunition to an identified bandit in Kakumi village, Katsina State. She was, thereafter, transferred to the Kaduna State Command of the Nigeria Police Force for further investigation.
Also, military authorities at Bonny Camp cantonment in Lagos, on Tuesday, January 2, transferred a suspect, Francis Suru (37), alongside 63 jumbo bags of Ghana Loud, a strain of cannabis weighing 2,104.2 kilogrammes, and a truck to the Lagos State NDLEA command.
The suspect and the exhibits were earlier intercepted by NDLEA officers on December 12, 2023, close to the gate of the cantonment, in Bonny Camp, Victoria Island.
Some armed escorts, however, resorted to sporadic shooting to obstruct the operation. The development attracted soldiers from the cantonment, who intervened and took custody of the consignment and suspect before transferring them to the agency.
Also, the agency, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos, on New Year day, intercepted a consignment of Colorado, a very strong strain of cannabis, concealed in boxing kits imported from the United States of America.
The Guardian learnt that a weeklong 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.
The consignment had arrived in the country on January 1, via Cairo on an Egypt Airlines flight marked as boxing kits. According to Olakunle, he delivers such consignments to different recipients whenever his childhood friend, a United States of America-based Sagir Salami, sends them. The latest shipment had a total weight of 1.80 kilogrammes.
In the same vein, NDLEA operatives in Niger State, on Thursday, January 5, during a stop and search operation along Suleja-Kaduna road, intercepted a J5 bus coming from Ondo State to Zaria, Kaduna State, with 23 bags of cannabis sativa weighing 219.5kg.
Two suspects: Umar Musa, 26 and Isachiru Abubakar were arrested in connection with the seizure. A female drug trafficker, Queen Onyema, 27, was arrested on Saturday, January 6, in a commercial bus enroute Abuja, along 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 1, with 445.9kg 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 the Pomfomari bypass area of the state with 60kg cannabis.
Also, in Osun, NDLEA operatives on patrol along Osogbo-Ode Omu road, on New Year day, intercepted a consignment of illicit drugs sent through 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 150gm; Colorado 19gm; Molly five grams totalling 10.974kg. A digital scale, N18,000 monetary exhibit, and customised wrapping papers for Colorado were also seized.
Meanwhile, NDLEA commands across the 36 states and the FCT have continued their War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation lectures in schools, communities, workplaces and others.
Also, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) has commended the arrests and seizures of the past week by officers and men of the MMIA, Lagos, Niger, Kogi, Kano, Borno, and Osun commands.