A 90-year-old man, Yusuf Yarkadir, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, for selling drugs to the youth in his Yarkadir village in Rimi Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Speaking during interrogation, the nonagenarian who was full of regrets, confessed he has been selling cannabis Sativa to the youth in his community for eight years due to their demand for the illegal substance. Though he failed to disclose his source of supply, he, however, vowed his arrest on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, would now make him back out of the business have tried in the past to stop the illicit trade without success.
NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement, also revealed that narcotic officers in the Ondo State Command of the agency arrested two teenage siblings along with other suspects for dealing in assorted illicit drugs in the state capital.
The teenagers; Onyema Sunday, 16, and his sister, Onyema Amaka, 15, were arrested in Car street area of Akure with 1.894 kilogrammes of Tramadol on Monday, July 5, while 23-year-old Kazeem Oluyede was nabbed in Eru Oba area of the capital city with 300 grammes of cannabis and three grammes of methamphetamine. Also, a lady, Maryam Musa, 35, was arrested in Igbara-Oke, Ifedore local council area of the state with 5.5 kilogrammes of cannabis on the same day.
According to the statement, following credible intelligence and surveillance, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, July 7, also stormed the Ogbese market, in Akure North local council, where Messrs Jalamia Ochonogor and Austin Uzoka were arrested with 63 kilogrammes of cannabis.
Elsewhere in Bauchi State, at least seven persons have been arrested and 28.091 kilogrammes of assorted drugs such as Diazepam, Exol-5, Rophynol, Tramadol, Codeine and cannabis recovered from them. Those arrested in two separate raids by operatives of the Bauchi State Command of the agency include Sunday Obi, Abba Abdullahi, Samuel John, Chijioke Agu, Sani Musa, Alhaji Alhaji Baffa and Abubakar Saidu.
Meanwhile, different quantities of illicit drugs going to the United States, the United Kingdom (UK) and New Zealand have been intercepted and seized by narcotic officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations (DOGI) attached to some courier companies in Lagos.
In one of the courier firms, 400 grammes of Ketamine hidden in walls of hair attachments carton coming from Cameroon and heading to the U.S. was seized.
Others include 30 grammes of Tramadol concealed in female headgear coming from Onitsha, Anambra State and going to the UK; 200 grammes of Ketamine from Cameroon going to the U.S. and 400 grammes of Methamphetamine from Asaba, Delta State heading to New Zealand.
While commending the officers and men of Katsina, Ondo and Bauchi Commands as well as DOGI for their vigilance and commitment to the goal of ridding every community in Nigeria of the menace of drug abuse and trafficking, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa charged them not to relent, but to continue to raise the bar in the ongoing offensive action against the scourge and the cartels behind them.
