The National Drug Law Enforcement Law Agency, NDLEA, has arrested 19 suspected drug dealers, including a woman who has been on the watch list for 10 years.
Briefing journalists on the arrests, NDLEA Sokoto Commander, Yakubu kibo, disclosed: “In the month of February 2020, we made arrests of 19 suspects – 18 males and one female with a total seizure of 141.534kg of assorted illicit drugs.”
He said the illicit drugs included cannabis sativa 134.128kg, and psychotropic substances which included tramadol diazepam, pentazocine injection, among others.
“We arrested a very notorious cannabis Sativa dealer in the state, Madam Queen, from Raymond Village. Madam Queen has been on our watch list for the past 10 years and on the 28th of February, she was arrested alongside her sales boy,” he disclosed.
“This time around, it was not limited to cannabis Sativa, she is now a multi-illicit drug dealer, apart from the cannabis we seized from her, other drugs including pentazocine injection, and we all know the danger of pentazocine injection which is class A in the prohibited drug worldwide.”
He revealed that another notorious business centre of one Ali Custom was also raided on two occasions at Kofar Marke, Rukubawa area with a total seizure of 97.750kg made.
According to him, the NDLEA in the state had also returned sanity to Sokoto Hotel as well as raided a lot of other black spots in the state in the month of February 2020.
War against illicit drugs
The Nigerian government has been in a continuous battle with drug dealers as it works towards discouraging drug abuse in the country.
The government is concerned that many youths and women are now doing drugs.
The Edo State Command of the NDLEA said it arrested 278 suspected drug traffickers in Edo state in 2019.
NDLEA state Commander, Buba Wakawa, said the suspects made up of 187 males and 91 females were caught with 23,842.096 kilograms of various narcotic drugs.
“A breakdown of the drugs are; cannabis, 23,803.593kg, diazepam 19.112kg, tramadol 9.713kg, rubber solution 8kg, extol 1kg, amphetamine 0.534kg, Rapynol 0.100kg, cocaine 0.024kg, Lexotan 0.020kg and 30 bottles of codeine cough syrups,” Wakawa said.
He further disclosed that 22 cannabis farms measuring 9.337 hectares were destroyed while 211 drug-dependent persons were counseled and reunited with their families in the period under review.
Also, the Imo State Command of the NDLEA said it arrested 146 suspects and seized 225.32 kilograms of hard drugs within same period.
The Public Relations Officer of the agency, Uche Sampson, said the agency counseled 48 drug addicts and rehabilitated five.
“The total number of convictions was eight and the total number of drug cases pending in court as at 31 December, 2019 was 55,” he said.
In January this year, the NDLEA confiscated 895 kilograms of cannabis sativa concealed in a trailer truck in Kano.
While parading the suspects and the seized consignment, the state commander of the agency, Dr Ibrahim Abdul, said the consignment originated from Ogbese in Ondo State and that four suspects were arrested in connection with the seizure.
