By Adedapo Adesanya
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has intercepted over 2.3 million tablets of illicit drugs known as opioids and other psychoactive substances meant for distribution in seven northern states.
NDLEA spokesman, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, identifying the states as Borno, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara, Gombe, and Nasarawa.
He said the hard drugs were seized from locations across Kaduna, Kogi, Sokoto, and the FCT in a series of interdiction operations in the past week.
In Kaduna, a suspected drug dealer identified as Mr Umar Sanusi was arrested on August 12, during a follow-up operation in Kano and brought back to the state where his consignment of 50 cartons of pregabalin 300mg, containing 750,000 capsules, weighing 375kgs earlier seized along Abuja-Kaduna expressway was counted and weighed in his presence.
“Same day, operatives also intercepted along Abuja-Kaduna express road 7,068 bottles of a new dangerous substance of abuse called Akuskura meant for Kaduna, Zamfara, Gombe, Kano, and Borno,” the statement read.
“The recipients in Kaduna and Zamfara have been arrested during follow-up operations. The following day, Saturday 13th August, 285 bottles of the NPS were recovered from a dealer, Abubakar Ahmad, along the same highway.
“In Kogi, no fewer than 696,000 tablets of Tramadol and Exol-5 among others loaded into a truck at Onitsha, Anambra state and heading to Maiduguri, Borno state, were seized along Okene-Abuja expressway on Friday 19th Aug, while NDLEA operatives also recovered 300,000 tablets of Diazepam from a suspect, Faruku Bello, 30, in Sokoto State on Wednesday 17th August,” the disclosure added.
According to Mr Babafemi, anti-narcotic officials also intercepted a bus loaded with 323, 200 tablets of Tramadol 225mg in Abuja and others at Onitsha, Anambra state heading to Nasarawa state.
He said the driver of the vehicle, Mr Osita Nwobodo, 45, who made fruitless bids to compromise the operatives, is now in custody.
