The interception, it said, was based on credible intelligence, which made the operatives to lay ambush to a white truck conveying 50 jumbo bags of the illicit substance weighing 2, 434.1kg along the Epe-Lekki expressway in the early hours of Monday June 19.
The truck driver, the agency said, however, jumped out of the vehicle and escaped in a security hilux van escorting the truck, after the anti-narcotics officers successfully demobilised the truck conveying the drug exhibits.
Also, officers of the Marine Command of the Agency the following day, June 20, acting on intelligence intercepted a boat loaded with the same imported substance weighing 2,910kg around Alfa Beach upon arrival from Ghana. Two Ghanaians: Monday Saba, 30, and Hakeem Kwana, 27, found with the consignments were immediately arrested.
In Niger State, two suspects: Abubakar Mohammed, 32, and Nuhu Sale, 43, were arrested on June 18 along Abuja expressway, Suleja with 31 jumbo bags of skunk weighing 517kg, while a 30-year-old Amina Alilu was arrested with 171kg of the substance on June 21, at Ogbogodo village, Dekina LGA, Kogi State.
In Kwara State, a suspected fake female security agent, Ogedegbe Dorcas, 34, was also nabbed at Ajegunle Asa Dam Area of Ilorin, Kwara State with 30kg of cannabis on June 22, while in Oyo State, NDLEA operatives intercepted 42-year-old Segun Olajide with 49.2kg of same substance on June 24, in Oyo town.
Also, operatives of the agency in Edo State combed Ekudo forest, Uhunmwode LGA where they destroyed a cannabis farm measuring 2.494863 hectares, recovered processed weeds weighing 67kg and arrested six suspects namely: Onyeka Onyedinma; Monday Onyedi; Alex Eboh; Edosa Imariagbe; Godbless Tunde and Godstime Osarobo in the early hours of June 19.
While commending the officers and men of the Lagos, Kogi, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Edo states and Marine Commands for blocking over five tons of illicit substances from going into circulation in the past week, Chairman/Chief Executive of the Agency, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd) urged the operatives and their compatriots across other formations to remain committed to the corporate goal of ridding Nigeria of the menace of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking.
