A Vietnam-bound businessman, Paul Okwuy Mbadugha, has been arrested by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja after he tested positive for ingestion of cocaine.

The 54-year-old businessman was intercepted at the boarding gate of the Abuja airport on Monday, August 12, 2024, during the outward clearance of Qatar Airways flight QR 1432 to Hanoi, Vietnam via Doha.

After four days under excretion observation, Mbadugha egested a total of 88 wraps of cocaine with a gross weight of 1.710 kilograms.

The NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, disclosed this via a statement on Sunday, August 18, 2024.

Babafemi noted that the suspect, in his statement, claimed he was a Lagos-based businessman and was given the cocaine pellets to swallow by a friend in the Isolo area of the state for onward delivery in Vietnam for a fee of $2,000.

Babafemi added that the NDLEA operatives supported by the officers of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies as well as community youths, on Wednesday, August 14, raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti in Ekiti State, where 21,800 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa on 20 hectares of farmland were destroyed.

He disclosed that on Thursday, August 15, the NDLEA officers on patrol along Onitsha-Enugu Road in Enugu State intercepted a Sienna bus from which 200.2kg of cannabis was recovered and the 41-year-old driver, Okoro Emmanuel, was arrested.

NDLEA intercepts drugs imported from Canada, nabs suspects

The NDLEA spokesperson said the anti-narcotic officers on patrol along the Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday, August 13, intercepted a truck from which 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered and three suspects – Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul, and Edet Ubokobong – arrested.

Babafemi stated that the officers of the anti-drug agency, on Thursday, August 15, arrested one Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town in Niger State with 28, 500 pills of tramadol concealed in a loudspeaker.

He added that the NDLEA operatives, on Wednesday, August 14, nabbed one Abba Yakubu in Kogi State with 40,000 pills of the same opioid heading to Kontagora.

Commending the officers of the agency for the arrests and seizures, the NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Rtd), also applauded them for intensifying the War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitisation lectures and advocacy messages to every part of their areas of responsibility.

The Star