
NDLEA seizes ₦7.8 billion illicit substances, arrests kingpin
CITIZENS COMPASS—The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized illicit substances valued at over ₦7.8 billion and arrested a suspected notorious drug kingpin.
The operation was carried out during the dismantling of multiple trafficking networks across the country,
The coordinated operations, spanning nine states and two seaports, saw the arrest of high-profile traffickers, the destruction of cannabis farms, and the interception of pharmaceutical opioids bound for black markets nationwide, said Femi Babafemi, the nation’s anti-drug agency spokesman in a statement on Sunday.
The statement said after three years on the run, 36-year-old Sunday Ibigide, once described by officials as a “ghost trafficker,” was finally captured in Asaba, Delta State.
Ibigide, along with his aide Clement Osuya, was caught attempting to move 250 parcels of skunk (138kg) in his distribution bus.
NDLEA operatives revealed that Ibigide had been wanted since March 2022, when he was linked to an earlier seizure of psychoactive drugs but vanished underground. His arrest marks a major victory in the agency’s decade-long war on organized narcotics syndicates.
In Rivers State, NDLEA operatives, working with Customs and other security agencies, uncovered a massive pharmaceutical trafficking ring at the Onne Port in Port Harcourt. Intelligence-led raids on five containers yielded 875,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup worth ₦6.1 billion and 3.5 million pills of Trodol Benzhexol valued at ₦1.7 billion.
Officials described the haul as “a decisive strike against cartel-linked import networks feeding Nigeria’s opioid crisis.”
Raids across Enugu and Taraba forests dismantled vast cannabis plantations, destroying over 48,750kg of skunk cultivated on nearly 20 hectares of farmland.
Six suspects, including local coordinators, were arrested in Enugu Ezike, while NDLEA operatives, backed by the Sardauna Emirate Council and forest security hunters, leveled another operation in Taraba’s Tanmiya forest.
In a dramatic twist, NDLEA officers arrested 52-year-old Muyibat Mumuni and her 25-year-old son Faruk in Mushin, Lagos, for running a family-based trafficking syndicate. They were caught storing and distributing 149kg of Ghana Loud cannabis, hidden in 298 blocks.
Elsewhere in Lekki, officers arrested Emmanuel Samuel with 8.5kg of Canadian Loud, exposing the growing trade in foreign cannabis strains.
Nationwide crackdown on pharmaceutical opioids
Across Gombe, Kogi, Kaduna, and Kano, NDLEA intercepted staggering volumes of tramadol capsules,recovering nearly 500,000 pills from traffickers attempting to move supplies to northern markets.
Arrests included Sulaiman Oyedokun, a commercial driver ferrying opioids from Onitsha to Niger State, and Sani Mohammed, caught with 128,000 capsules in Gombe.
Leadership commends officers, expands WADA Campaign
While commending his operatives, NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd.), hailed the week’s operations as “a defining moment in Nigeria’s war against drugs.”
He also emphasized the agency’s ongoing War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) advocacy, which reached traditional rulers including former Head of State General Abdulsalami Abubakar, the Emir of Borgu, the Emir of Lafia, and the Shehu of Borno, underscoring the NDLEA’s two-pronged strategy of enforcement and prevention.
—-PM News