80-year-old man arrested with cannabis in Lagos

An 80-year-old grandfather,  Pa Aremu Shojobi, has been arrested by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency with 14 kilograms of cannabis.

Shojobi confessed to having been selling illicit drugs in the last 25 years, according to a statement on Sunday by the agency’s spokesman, Femi Babafemi.

The agency stated that the suspect got the drugs from Benin Republic.

Babafemi said, “Operatives of the Lagos State Strategic Command of the Agency on Friday, September 20, arrested an 80-year-old grandfather, Pa Aremu Shojobi, with 14 kilograms of cannabis at his home in the Iyana Ipaja area of the state. In his statement, the octogenarian claimed he had been in the business of selling illicit drugs for 25 years. He further claimed he got his supplies from the Benin Republic and sold to his customers from his residence between 7 am and 10 pm every day.”

Babafemi also said a total of 25,000,000.00 pills of tapentadol, an opioid three times stronger than tramadol and 350,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup, were recovered at the Tin Can port complex in Lagos.

He added that the seizures were made on September 17 and 20, 2024, from three containers that had been on the watchlist of the agency following processed intelligence.

“As a result, the NDLEA requested 100% joint examination of the shipments with men of the Nigeria Customs Service and other security agencies. The 25 million pills of tapentadol have an estimated street value of N13,725,000,000.00 while the codeine consignment has an estimated street value of N2,450,000,000.00,  bringing the total value of the seizures to N16,175,000,000.00.

“The tapentadol consignment packed in 500 cartons was discovered in one of the containers on Tuesday, September 17, while another container examined the same day contained 175,000 bottles of Barcadin cough syrup with codeine packed in 875 cartons. The third container containing 175,000 bottles of CSC cough syrup with codeine was examined on Friday, September 20,” the statement added.

Similarly, Babafemi said the NDLEA operatives in Lagos on September 18 raided the two homes of a community leader and Sarkin Yamma of Badagry West LCDA, Alhaji Bashir Mohammed Talba, where 226kg of cannabis was recovered from his two wives and son.

He added that though Alhaji Talba is currently at large, a search of his house in the Ashipa area of Seme Badagry led to the recovery of 93 compressed blocks of cannabis sativa weighing 57.6kg from his first wife, Asma’u Bashiru, 35, and son, Sadat Bashiru, 22, while another search of his house at the Aketegbo area of Seme Badagry led to the seizure of 302 compressed blocks of cannabis weighing 168.6kg from his second wife, Hauwa Bashir, 42.

“No less than 720 blocks of Arizona, a strain of cannabis weighing 390kg, were also recovered from a Mitsubishi delivery van marked MUS 720 XH at the Ojo area of Lagos on Monday, September 16,” he added.

At the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Babafemi said the NDLEA operatives on September 15 arrested a 38-year-old drug mule, Okafor Ifeanyi Anthony, while attempting to board a Qatar Airlines flight to Iran via Doha with 76 wraps of cocaine in his stomach.

“After three days of excretion observation, Okafor excreted the 76 pellets of the ingested cocaine weighing 1.267kg.

In Kogi State, the NDLEA officers on patrol along the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja Expressway on Tuesday, September 17, recovered 700,000 pills of exol-5 coming from Lagos for distribution in Kano and Kaduna states, while a suspect, Udemefuna Chibuike, 23, was arrested by operatives on Friday, September 20, along the Mokwa-Jebba Road, Niger State, in possession of 49,000 tablets of tramadol, 20,000 tablets of diazepam, 100 ampoules of tramadol injection and 50 bottles of cough syrup with codeine,” Babafemi added.

The statement continued, “A total of 451 blocks of cannabis weighing 213kg were intercepted along the Azikiwe Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State on Wednesday, September 18, by the NDLEA officers who apprehended a suspect, Ogochukwu Paul, 33, conveying the consignment to a notorious drug haven in Borikiri.

“While operatives in Plateau State on Friday, September 20, arrested a wanted suspect, Jonathan Ali Abuttur, 46, at the Agingi-Rukuba Road, Bassa LGA, in possession of 808kg of cannabis sativa concealed in 68 bags of sugar and fertiliser, their counterparts in Kwara State also nabbed Shaibu Musa with 28kg of the same psychoactive substance.”

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