NLDEA Invades ‘Katsina Wedding Drug Party’, Arrests Groom, 25 Others

Eko Hot Blog reports that operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have busted a pre-wedding ceremony “drug abuse competition” in a community popularly known as Shola Quarters in Katsina State.

The agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, disclosed the development in a statement on Sunday.

Babafemi revealed that that, NDLEA officers acting on intelligence, disrupted the alleged drug abuse competition and arrested 25 youths participating in the drug party.

He said the groom, Musa Gwandi, who was absent at the “drug party”, was later arrested following a manhunt.

“Operatives swooped on the suspects while they were busy taking turns abusing all sorts of illicit substances including a mixture of multiple drugs mixed in a plastic bucket,” the statement reads in part.

“Though the groom, Musa Gwandi who organized the drug party along with his friends was not at the venue at the time the 25 others were arrested, he was however nabbed on Sunday 3rd December following a manhunt for him.”

In a related development, NLDEA operatives, on Saturday 9th December 2023, intercepted at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, AIIA, Enugu, 12 consignments of cocaine belonging to members of a Drug Trafficking Organisation.

A businessman, Augustine Justine Emeka, 44, who claims he deals in copper wire was arrested at the airport upon his arrival from Douala, Cameroon via Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Ethiopia airline with the 12 consignments consisting of seven hundred and ninety-seven (797) pellets of cocaine weighing 17.6 kilograms.

“During preliminary interview, the suspect admitted the cocaine consignments were for delivery to 12 different persons in the country,” the NDLEA said.

Similarly, NDLEA operatives at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, MMIA, Ikeja, Lagos on Friday 8th December arrested a fleeing suspect, Onyejiuwa Prince Ifeanyi, who had gone into hiding since 8th September following the seizure of a United Kingdom-bound 20kg cannabis consignment concealed in tomato pastes tins at the SAHCO shed linked to him.

In the same vein, operatives of the Seaports Operations of the agency on Monday 4th December arrested a 45-year-old Beninoise, Jamila Fatiu at Ebute Ero Jetty in Lagos Island with 398 bottles of codeine cough syrup on her way to Seme border via a boat service.

On the same day, Sunday 3rd December, NDLEA operatives in Anambra state intercepted a truck marked BEN 302 YS (Edo) and after a search, 5,612 bottles of codeine-based syrup; 57,800 capsules of tramadol and 5,100 ampoules of pentazocine injection, among others were recovered.

The driver, Ambrose Oyamedan, conductors – Samuel Otejere and Obey Jonathan as well as the truck were taken into custody for further investigation. Two ladies: Chiemenam Akusoba, 25, and Chidinma Ibenwa, 28, were also arrested on Saturday 9th December with 15.8503kg of Cocaine, Heroin, Methamphetamine and Cannabis sativa in Umuogbu, Nnobi and Onitsha respectively.