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Auto parts dealer arrested over heroin, loud shipments concealed in lamps, sofa legs(Photos)
. As NDLEA arrests 2 wanted kingpins, 2 ex-convicts for drug trafficking; intercepts illicit consignments going to US, UK, Canada, Australia, Thailand
Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have arrested an automobile spare parts dealer Ejiofor Nnaemeka Chiwuzie over attempt to export consignments of heroin and loud, a strain of cannabis, concealed in LED rechargeable lamps and sofa metal legs through the export shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA Ikeja Lagos.
Ejiofor was arrested on Tuesday 24th September 2024 at the Trade Fair complex, Ojo area of Lagos where he sells automobile spare parts following the seizure of his cargo containing auto parts, rechargeable lamps, sofa metal legs and electronics going to Liberia at the export shed of the Lagos airport.
Concealed inside the LED lamps and sofa legs were 37 parcels of heroin weighing 1.10 kilograms and four blocks of loud with a total weight of 1.20kg. A swift follow up operation led to the arrest of two freight agents and then Ejiofor who sent the consignment.
In the same vein, attempts by drug trafficking networks to export consignments of loud, tramadol pills, co-codamol tablets, pentazocine injection, dihydrocodeine and promethazine tabs through some courier companies to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Thailand and Oman were foiled by NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operation and General Investigation, DOGI, attached to the logistics firms.
While 2.3kg of loud hidden in a carton was going to Thailand, 749 grams of tramadol concealed in soles of locally made footwears were heading to Oman, with 60 ampoules of pentazocine injection going to the United States.
No less than 200 pills of co-codamol were meant for Australia while a total of 700 tablets of dihydrocodeine, promethazine and tramadol as well as 20 ampoules of pentazocine injection concealed in soles of footwears were heading to the United Kingdom. Going to Canada were 58 ampoules of pentazocine injection hidden in female cloths. All the seizures in the courier houses were made between Monday 23rd and Tuesday 24th September in Lagos.
Meanwhile, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday 25th September arrested a wanted drug kingpin Ajiboye Damilare Samuel (a.k.a Na God) after 12 months of evading arrest following the raid of his warehouse in Akala, Mushin area of Lagos, where a total of 1,101 kilograms of Ghana Loud, a strong strain of cannabis was recovered on 4th September 2023. The arrest of Ajiboye in a bank in Ogun state followed well-coordinated efforts by the Agency’s Directorate of Assets and Financial Investigation, which traced 20 bank accounts linked to the suspect and blocked them.
In like manner, NDLEA operatives in Lagos on Friday 27th September took into custody a wanted community leader and Sarkin Yamma of Badagry, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, following the arrest of his two wives: Hauwa and Asma’u and son, Sadat as well as the seizure of a total of 226.2kg cannabis at their homes in Badagry on 18th September. In another operation in Lagos, no less than 9.7kg cannabis sativa and 50 litres of monkey tail, a fermented combo of cannabis and dry gin, were recovered from a suspect Florence Moses at Badore area of Ajah, Lekki on Tuesday 24th September.
In Kogi, three suspects: Owolabi Dele, 42; Ayodele Monday, 40; and Olawale Ojo, 22, were arrested by NDLEA operatives along Okene-Lokoja-Abuja expressway while conveying 132 sacks of cannabis weighing 2,062.00kg in a Mercedes container truck from Osun state to Dei Dei in Abuja. Another suspect Benedict Simire, 57, was arrested at Ayetoro road, Kabba, conveying 33.40kg of same psychoactive substance and a pump action gun with six cartridges on Wednesday 25th September.
On the same Wednesday, operatives of the Marine Command of NDLEA intercepted a two 40HP Yamaha engines boat bearing 71 bags of Ghana Loud weighing 2,982kgs along Alfa beach, Lekki area of Lagos.
Men of the Nigerian Customs Service Western Marine Command were on hand to support the NDLEA officers to recover the boat and exhibits after the two suspects in the boat dived into the water.
Also, on Wednesday 25th September, NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports complex, Onne, Rivers state intercepted 1,500 cartons of codeine-based cough syrup containing a total of 150,000 bottles during a joint examination of a targeted 40ft container, with men of Nigerian Customs and other security agencies.
While NDLEA operatives in Niger state recovered 6,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection from Chukwudi Nwanoche, 38, at the former Minna city gate, their counterparts in Kano arrested Aminu Danmanya, 31, with 15,530 capsules of tramadol at Kano residential hotel, Katsina road.
In Plateau state, operatives on Friday 27th September arrested a female suspect Jummai Luka, 58, behind Jehovah Witness junction, Kabong, Jos North LGA, in possession of 12,000 pills of tramadol while NDLEA officers in Oyo state on Tuesday 24th September nabbed
Segun Asogba, 50, with 601kg cannabis sativa and a Dane gun at Igangan town.
In Katsina, two ex-convicts: Muhammad Machido, 44, and Zakari Ya’u Buhari, 32, were again arrested by NDLEA operatives with illicit substances.
While Muhammad was nabbed along Kano-Katsina highway, Kankia, on Monday 23rd September with 51,000 pills of opioids, Zakari was arrested in Daura with 14 blocks of cannabis weighing 7kg. Zakari was first arrested on 8th February 2024 and sentenced by court to 15 months’ imprisonment with an option of 15,000 fine, which he paid. In his case, Muhammad was earlier arrested with 45kg cannabis sativa and 2.5kg tramadol on 12th December 2022. He was then sentenced to two years imprisonment.
While Benjamin Benjamin Ebei, 33, was arrested at Biase LGA Cross River state, with 38kg cannabis recovered from his vehicle, operatives in Edo state on Tuesday 24th September raided a house along Okpuje road, Uzebba in Owan West LGA where they arrested a suspect
Idonuan Ajilo, 53, and seized 112.5kg cannabis from his store.
Meanwhile, across the country, NDLEA Commands continued their War Against Drug Abuse, WADA, sensitization lectures and advocacy visits to worship centres, schools, workplaces, palaces of traditional rulers and communities all through the past week.
Instances include: WADA sensitization lecture to students and staff of Government Girls Secondary School, Kafur, Katsina; students and teachers of Akinlade Primary School, Ajah, Lagos;
students of St. Patrick’s Secondary School, Ikot Ansa, Calabar, Cross River; and WADA advocacy lecture at the palace of Aree of Iree town,Osun state, Oba Muritala Oyelakin, among others.
While commending the officers and men of DOGI, DAFI, MMIA, Onne, Marine, Lagos, Kogi, Katsina, Oyo, Plateau, Niger, Kano, Edo, and Cross River Commands of the Agency for the arrests and seizures of the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd) also applauded their compatriots in all the commands across the country for intensifying the WADA sensitization lectures and advocacy messages to every part of their areas of responsibility.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called on African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar to withdraw from the 2027 presidential race over a controversial $500,000 payment made to his former wife, Jennifer Douglas, during negotiations surrounding the Mambilla Hydroelectric Power Project.
The demand followed revelations from a final award issued by a three-member International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration tribunal in Paris in the long-running dispute between Sunrise Power and Transmission Company Limited and the Federal Government.
The tribunal ruled in favour of Nigeria, rejecting Sunrise Power’s claims and ordering the company and its promoter, Leno Adesanya, to reimburse Nigeria for 75 per cent of its legal costs.
At the centre of the controversy is a $500,000 transfer made by Adesanya on January 30, 2003, through China Castle Investments Limited, an offshore company he controlled, into Douglas’s Citibank account in the United States.
The payment came less than four months before Sunrise was purportedly awarded a 3,960-megawatt Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) contract for the Mambilla project in Taraba State.
Tribunal Questions $500,000 Payment
During the arbitration, Adesanya told the tribunal that the $500,000 was part of a foreign-exchange transaction carried out on behalf of Atiku.
However, the tribunal did not accept the explanation, noting the absence of documentary evidence showing the underlying naira payment, exchange rate, instructions from Atiku or his aides, correspondence relating to the transaction or records establishing its commercial purpose.
The tribunal also noted that neither Atiku nor Douglas testified or submitted witness statements to corroborate Adesanya’s account.
It further questioned the explanation because the payment was made during the period when Sunrise was pursuing the Mambilla project and months before the company was purportedly awarded the contract.
The tribunal’s findings, however, concerned the evidence and claims before it in the arbitration; they did not establish in the award that Atiku personally received a bribe.
Mambilla Contract Controversy
The Mambilla project, initially conceived in 1982 as a 3,050MW hydropower scheme, later became the subject of negotiations involving Sunrise and its Chinese partner.
Sunrise expressed interest in developing the project from 2001 and subsequently submitted proposals to the Federal Government.
A technical committee eventually recommended Sunrise for the 3,960MW project in March 2003.
Former Minister of Power Olu Agunloye later issued a letter which Sunrise relied upon as evidence that it had been awarded the project.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo, however, maintained that the Federal Executive Council never approved the contract and that he directed the withdrawal of the relevant memorandum.
The disputed letter subsequently became central to Sunrise’s multibillion-dollar arbitration claims against Nigeria.
APC Accuses Atiku of Conflict of Interest
Reacting to the tribunal’s findings, APC Presidential Campaign Council spokesman Dele Alake accused Atiku and Agunloye of working together to facilitate the disputed Sunrise contract.
Alake described the $500,000 payment as an alleged bribe connected to the Mambilla deal and argued that its timing raised questions about a possible conflict of interest involving Atiku, who was vice-president at the time.
The APC spokesman also criticised Atiku for not appearing as a witness before the tribunal, saying his testimony could have helped clarify the circumstances surrounding the payment.
The campaign council subsequently demanded that Atiku withdraw from the 2027 presidential contest.
Long-Running Mambilla Legal Battle
The dispute over the Mambilla project has continued for years.
Sunrise previously pursued billions of dollars in claims against Nigeria, alleging breaches relating to the proposed project.
A surviving miner has alleged that an unidentified substance was sprayed inside a detention cell shortly before several suspected illegal miners began collapsing while in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Niger State.
The survivor made the allegation while recounting his experience in detention during a visit to the state by the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.
According to the miner, detainees were locked inside a cell before an unidentified substance was sprayed into the facility.
He alleged that shortly after the substance was released, some of the detainees began experiencing difficulties before collapsing.
«“They sprayed something inside the cell after locking us in, and people began collapsing,” the survivor reportedly said.»
The allegation comes amid growing scrutiny over the circumstances surrounding the deaths of suspected illegal miners who were detained by security authorities in Niger State.
The survivor did not identify the substance allegedly sprayed inside the cell, nor did he state who allegedly authorised or carried out the action.
He also did not provide details on the number of detainees who were affected or establish whether the alleged spraying directly caused any of the reported deaths.
The NSCDC and other relevant authorities have yet to publicly respond to the specific allegation.
The account is likely to intensify calls for a thorough investigation into the treatment of the detainees and the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
Establishing what happened inside the cell would require further investigation, including determining the identity of the substance allegedly used, who introduced it into the facility and whether there was any link between the incident and the subsequent collapse or deaths of detainees.
Enugu State politician, Prince Ikechukwu Oloto, also known as Okanga Moo, has reportedly been killed in an attack at his residence in Nsukka Local Government Area of the state.
Oloto was allegedly attacked by unknown assailants at his home in the Odenigbo area of Nsukka on Thursday evening.
According to reports by Daily Post, the attackers invaded the politician’s residence and killed him during the incident. The report further alleged that a knife was used in the attack.
The circumstances surrounding the reported killing remain unclear, while the identities and motive of the attackers had not been established as of the time of filing this report.
The incident was also reported on Facebook by social media influencer Sen. Chijinkem Ugwuanyi, who claimed that Oloto was killed at his Odenigbo residence.
The reported killing comes amid heightened political activities and preparations ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections. However, there is currently no confirmed information linking the attack to Oloto’s political activities.
The Enugu State Police Command had yet to publicly confirm the reported killing or disclose whether an investigation had commenced as of the time of filing this report.
Further details are expected as authorities investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Just in: APC Demands Atiku Quit 2027 Race Over $500,000 Mambilla Payment
Niger Deaths: Survivor Alleges Substance Was Sprayed in Cell Before Detainees Collapsed
Just in: Enugu Politician Ikechukwu Oloto Reportedly Killed in Nsukka Home Attack
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