The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two grandpas, Godfrey Orji, and Godwin Obiora, for allegedly selling illicit drugs to teenage secondary school students in Umuahia, Abia state’s capital.
Orji, 84, and Obiora, 75, were apprehended by the NDLEA operatives following reports over their sales of the illicit substance to the teenagers.
As disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by the NDLEA’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, Pa Obiora was arrested on Friday following credible intelligence that he was selling illicit substances to young students and others in his patent medicine store located at 4 Club road, Umuahia.
The substances recovered from the store during search by the NDLEA operatives were 4.64 kilograms of opioids which included tramadol and diazepam.
In his case, Pa Orji who is a pensioner and also into the illicit drug trade, was nabbed by security guards at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, for supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students (names withheld) in the school.
The guards thereafter handed them over to the police who in turn transferred them to NDLEA on Thursday 18th June.
In his statement, one of the two teenagers, a 15-year-old SS2 student claimed the 84-year-old grandpa supplies him the drugs which he takes and also sells to fellow students.
While the two grandpas are billed to have their day in court, the students have been placed on counselling and rehabilitation.
In another development, the NDLEA operatives intercepted a consignment of ADB Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid classified as a dangerous new psychoactive substance (NPS), at a courier firm in Lagos.
The shipment coming from China with a gross weight of 9.5 kilograms was concealed in a carton.
This was followed by another seizure on Tuesday 16th June at a different logistics company in Lagos where 300grams of Loud, a strong strain of cannabis was found hidden in ladies’ handbags.
Also in Lagos, NDLEA officers on Friday raided the home of a wanted drug dealer Lukman Badmus (a.k.a. Lukman Ogombo) in Ogombo area of Ajah where nine bottles of codeine syrup and 30 grams of skunk were recovered.
A swift follow up operation at Lukman’s wife shop in Patey area of Lagos Island led to the recovery of additional two bottles of codeine and drug paraphernalia, while 42 compressed blocks of skunk weighing 22.5kg were also recovered from a minibus parked in front of her shop.
Attempt by the wife, Aisha Saraki, to flush some of the drug exhibits in the toilet during the raid was thwarted by operatives.