The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kogi says it has arrested six persons, including a retired soldier and seized 2.2kg of substance suspected to be Indian hemp and a double-barrel rifle.
Commander of NDLEA in the state, Alhaji Bello Idris, who disclosed this while parading the suspects before newsmen in Lokoja, said the arrests were made within the last two weeks.
Bello said Anazor Adams, 42, a retired soldier and father of six, who confessed to be a distributor of the weed, was arrested on February 2 in Adavi Local Government Area with 700 grammes of Indian hemp by operatives of the agency.
He also revealed that a woman, Rukayat Idris, 32, a mother of three also from Adavi was arrested in Okene with wraps of the weed weighing 190 grammes on same date.
He said Idris admitted that she had been into the sale of the weed for some time now due to hardship but promised to switch to another business if pardoned.
Also paraded was Salami Momoh-Jimoh, 32, arrested with 901 grammes of cannabis Sativa and five bottles of banned codeine cough syrup at Central Mosque area, Old Market, Lokoja.
Momoh-Jimoh said he was into buying and selling Indian hemp but had to quit when his family bought a commercial vehicle for him but unfortunately stopped due to epilepsy disease and was forced back into Indian hemp business.
Francis Nehemiah, 30, was also paraded for allegedly being in possession of a Russian-made double barrel rifle said to have been dismantled and concealed in a bag while on transit from Lagos to Kaduna.
Nehemiah, who claimed to be a security guard with an outfit in Lagos, said he used the gun for hunting “small-small bush animals” in his village and claimed it to be licensed.
Samuel Edugba, a commercial bus driver was also paraded after he was allegedly arrested on Okene-Lokoja highway enroute Abuja with 500 grammes of Rophynol tablets concealed in the bonnet of the commercial bus.
Isiaka Isa, who confessed to being a helm smoker, was arrested with two grammes of the hard drug in Adavi on February 9. He said he used the drug as sleeping pill, the NDLEA boss said.
Alhaji Idris said the suspects would be prosecuted upon completion of investigations into their alleged crimes while those with lesser offences and drug users would be counselled on “coping skills” and released.
He, however, cautioned that as the general elections approached, NDLEA was poised to go to all nooks and crannies of the state to arrest drug peddlers and users in order to keep the state safe and free from drug influences.
He also advised commercial bus owners to caution their drivers on the kind of parcels they carried or took from individuals for delivery and urged the general public to avail the agency information on drug peddlers.
