Operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have intercepted a commercial bus conveying N3.2 million counterfeit naira notes owned by three suspects: eight-month pregnant Favour Peter (24), Esther Adukwu (27) and Ochigbo Michael (39).
Mr Femi Babafemi, spokesman of NDLEA, on Sunday in a statement, said the suspects were arrested at the Jabi Motor Park, Utako District, Abuja, in a follow-up operation on Tuesday, April 9, following the seizure of the fake naira notes in Lokoja, Kogi State.
Babafemi also said NDLEA officers in collaboration with men of the Nigerian Navy Ship Lugard (NNSL) based in Lokoja, Kogi State, arrested one 37-year-old Aliyu Lawal on the Lokoja-Abuja road on Monday, April 8, and recovered 620 blocks of hemp weighing 310kg from him, while 10 sacks of the same substance weighing 98kg were seized on the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja highway from on Jama Obodo (44) in a commercial bus coming from Ilesha, Osun State, en route to Taraba State.
In Cross River State, a 40-year-old widow and mother of two, Mrs Theodora Ita, was on Monday, April 8, arrested at Bassey Edom, Calabar, for producing and selling a new psychoactive substance, NPS, locally called “Combine”, which is a mixture of strains of hemp and opioids soaked in gin.
Another suspect, Godwin Okon Samuel (48), was apprehended in the Essit Ebum area of Calabar with 39.4kg of hemp on Tuesday, April 9.
Babafemi further disclosed that two suspects: Sani Mohammed (43) and Christopher Eze (64), were arrested in the Sabon Gari area of Kano State on Tuesday, April 9, with 900,000 pills of opioids recovered from them,
He added that operatives on patrol on the Owerri-Onitsha road in Imo State on Friday, April 12, intercepted a logistics truck with registration number, JGB 403 XB, and recovered 230 blocks of hemp weighing 119kg hidden under household items.
