NDLEA seizes 34,950 Tramadol, Diazepam capsules in Lagos, says spokesman

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that it seized 34,950 capsules of Tramadol and Diazepam in Lagos meant for delivery to insurgents in Borno.

The agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, in Abuja.

Babafemi said that a 25-year-old suspect, Mohammed Isah, recruited to move the drugs from Lagos to Borno was arrested on Tuesday, at a motor park in Agege, Lagos.

He added that the suspect was arrested with 12, 390 capsules of Tramadol (4.8kg) and 22,560 tablets of Diazepam (14kg).

“Under interrogation, the suspect said he came to Lagos in 2013.

“He said when he got to Lagos, he started riding commercial motorcycle (Okada), then tricycle (Keke Marwa) and currently drives a township bus plying from Ikeja to Ojota.

“He said that on May 28, one Kakali Abubakar invited him to Ezekiel Street, Ikeja, and gave him the assignment of transporting the drugs to Maiduguri and offered to pay him N50, 000, which he accepted.

“He said that Kakali advised him to either board a tanker or trailer from Lagos to Maiduguri, to avoid being caught.’’

Babafemi added that the suspected confessed that “rather, he travelled in a bus operated by SD Motors from Lagos to Kano and then take another vehicle to Maiduguri.

“The suspect claimed that he accepted the offer because of financial strain on him as his wife and three children, displaced by Boko Haram activities, are currently in an IDP camp in Maiduguri.’’

Babafemi said investigations revealed that before Mohammed’s arrest, Kakali had travelled from Lagos to Maiduguri, to await the arrival of the consignment.

He quoted the NDLEA’s Chairman, retired Brig. Gen.-Buba Marwa, as commending operatives of the agency’s Lagos state command, for their vigilance in blocking such volume of drugs from getting to Borno, currently the nation’s hotbed of insurgency.