Just hours before the commencement of the new year, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) operatives intercepted a Qatar-based businessman, Agu Evidence Amobi, and another individual, Uchegbu Onyebuchi Obi, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in Ikeja, Lagos, with shipments of psychoactive substances.
Amobi was apprehended on December 30th at the departure point of terminal 2 of the MMIA while en route to Doha, Qatar, on a Qatar Airways flight. He was found in possession of 1.30kg of cannabis sativa concealed within a bag of foodstuff. Amobi, claiming over a decade of residence and work in Doha, asserted that he purchased the substance in Enugu with the intention of delivering it in Doha to generate funds for rent payments in both Doha and Nigeria, as well as school fees for his three children.
Simultaneously, NDLEA operatives at the domestic wing of the airport seized a carton containing a total of 72,000 pills of tramadol 250mg, weighing 38.50kg. Uchegbu Onyebuchi Obi was arrested for attempting to ship the consignment to Kano on a local flight.
In another incident on Christmas day in Yobe state, NDLEA officers on patrol along Nguru-Gashua road intercepted Musa Sani, Mohammed Ibrahim, and Adamu Usman in a truck carrying 39 blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 15.7kg and 128,500 pills of opioids. Subsequent operations on December 26th led to the arrest of the actual owner of the cannabis consignment, Ali Ibrahim (a.k.a Ramos), in Geidam, where an additional 208 blocks of the same substance were recovered from his residence, totaling 247 blocks weighing 94.74kg. The owner of the seized opioids, Mustapha Goni (a.k.a Lolo), was also apprehended.
