By Ayobamiji Komolafe Taiwo Jimoh
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a notorious drug kingpin, Ajetsibo Emami, popularly known as ‘Warri Kinsman,’ dismantling his drug trafficking network in a three-day operation that led to the arrest of three other suspects in Lagos.
According to a statement released on Sunday by the NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Emami was arrested on Saturday, June 28, in the Ikeja area of Lagos. The operatives recovered 24 jumbo bags containing 681 pouches of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, weighing 414.2 kilograms.
The operation followed credible intelligence that Emami planned to move the shipment to Lekki, from where it would be distributed across Lagos and to other parts of the country.
In a separate case, a Lagos-based businessman, Ajah Johnson Uchenna, his wife, Rosemary Uchenna, their daughters, Stella and Ngozi Uchenna, and a family friend, Okoro Elijah, were arrested for operating a major illicit drug distribution network.
The couple was initially arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on Friday, June 13, in the Ojo area and handed over to the NDLEA along with 277.5kg of cannabis (skunk). During further investigations, the NDLEA raided the couple’s residence and a storage facility on Tuesday, July 1, where an additional 231kg of cannabis was recovered.
During the second raid, three individuals—daughters Ngozi and Blessing Uchenna, and family friend Elijah—were apprehended while allegedly running the illicit business in the absence of the arrested couple.
Meanwhile, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, NDLEA operatives on Wednesday, July 2, intercepted a suspected drug courier, Aburemi Hysent, a frequent flyer who reportedly smuggles goods between Nigeria and Italy. He was caught with 7,660 pills of tramadol (225mg and 200mg) concealed in food items. He admitted he was to be paid €800 for delivering the consignment to Italy.
In another interdiction operation at MMIA, NDLEA operatives on Friday, July 4, seized 52 pieces of suspected counterfeit travellers’ cheques worth AUD 17.7 million, concealed in children’s books and bound for Malaysia via Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight. A freight agent, Bolarinwa Saheed, has been arrested and will be handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for further investigation.
At the Seme border in Badagry, operatives recovered 718 large wraps of skunk weighing 359kg from a store in the Baba-Pupa area on Saturday, July 5. Similarly, on the Okene–Lokoja highway, NDLEA officers intercepted 10,000 pills of tramadol (225mg), co-codamol, and 1.050kg of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis.
Follow-up operations led to the arrest of the suspected owners of the waybilled consignments—Chinedu Odo, Samuel Ogbonna, and Kingsley Ugaji—at Jabi Park, Abuja.
Commending the operatives for their efforts, NDLEA Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), praised all commands across the country for maintaining a strategic balance between drug supply reduction and drug demand reduction in the agency’s war against narcotics.