In the last six months, operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, have detained fifteen people in Lagos state, including Nigerians and foreigners, with 187,791 kilogrammes of various substances.
Ameh Inalegwu, Commander, NDLEA Special Area Command, made the announcement at the Nigeria Ports Authority’s NPA multipurpose hall in Apapa during the Terminal Owners/Operators engagement in the WADA campaign.
Some of the arrests and seizures, according to Inalegwu, were made in terminals in the Lagos neighbourhood of Apapa.
Last September, three suspects, Chinedu Agbougwu, Chukwuemeka Kingsley, and Romanus Onah, were discovered in possession of 74.119 kilogrammes of Amphetamine disguised in a Rotors machine.
14 people were apprehended with 32.9 kilogrammes of cocaine hidden in granulated sugar inside a vessel in October 2021. In November 2021, three expatriates, Fidel Gerapusco, Antolin Ortiz, Edgal Bechayda, and 25 others, were apprehended with 13.65 kg of cocaine hidden inside granulated sugar in another vessel.
In the month of February 2021 alone, four distinct drug seizures were made. Cold Caps measuring 4,352.43 kilogrammes with codeine-based pharmaceuticals weighing 14,080.00 kilogrammes and cough syrup with codeine weighing 8,080 litres were confiscated by the Special Area Command on February 2, 2022, according to statistics.
Three seizures were made on the same day, on February 8, 2021. They contained 2,493 cartoons of codeine cough syrup and 383 cartoons of codeine Barcadin.
Because some of the arrests and seizures were made at separate terminals under the command’s surveillance, Inalegwu said that the stakeholder meeting was required.
He said, “It is more alarming that some of the arrests and seizures were done at your Terminals. The most unfortunate and frustrating thing is the claim of not knowing the importers or the owners of these containers. It is our hope that this forum will critically look at the issue of know-your-customer (KYC).
“This engagement is in the realization of the fact that the Agency cannot win this war alone. This event is therefore aimed at the mobilization of strategic partnership for a coordinated response to effectively combat the drug challenges. The focus is for a joined-up approach with all relevant stakeholders for a sustainable response against the trafficking and use of illicit drugs”.
The Director, Seaport Operations, Omolade Faboyede, in her keynote address, described the continuous influx of substances of abuse into the country through the seaports as alarming, revealing that the quantity of Tramadol and Cough Syrup with Codeine, as well as other narcotics drugs and psychotropic substances seized at the seaport outnumbered the NDLEA’s air and land seizures.
She informed that “ the administration of Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brig. General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd.), has risen to the occasion by using all the assets of national power to address and redress the alarming drug situation.
“Today’s event is an extension of War Against Drug Abuse, WADA which is like taking the message to the doorstep of some of the most critical stakeholders. We should all know why engagement within the Maritime industry is very crucial. It is for the same reason why the merchants of death find the Maritime industry very attractive to plying their illicit trade. The volume of drugs that can be moved through a single shipment takes any other mode of transportation several times over to do so. If we are to effectively block the Maritime corridor, we would have achieved a milestone.
“The objective of this engagement, among others, is to solicit the support and cooperation of Terminal Owners and Operators to join hands with NDLEA to block the Maritime Space. Agreed that you are only a stakeholder but you are a critical stakeholder. What we want to achieve is to build a critical mass of resistance against the heinous drug criminals”, she stated.
