Last Saturday, during a routine patrol along the Kaduna-Zaria expressway, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) agents successfully stopped a commercial vehicle carrying 942 explosives in a sack that was traveling from Nasarawa to Zamfara State.
According to sources, Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokeswoman, acknowledged the development in a statement.
A 30-year-old suspect was arrested in relation to this event, the agency disclosed.
According to the NDLEA, the suspect, Nura Sani Muhammad (also known as Nura Hariji), was taken into custody after the explosives were found during the May 3rd patrol.
The organization also reported that illegal substances valued at more over N3.4 billion had been found in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
During a joint inspection of a watch-listed container by NDLEA officers and other security personnel at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex in Onne, Rivers State, on April 29, 2 million pills of tafrodol 225mg and 163,000 bottles of codeine syrup were recovered. Additionally, 1,500,000 pills of a controlled opioid were discovered in the Alaba-Rago neighborhood of Ojo, Lagos.
“The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, or NDLEA, has intercepted at least three million five hundred thousand (3,500,000) opioid pills and one hundred and sixty-three thousand (163,000) bottles of codeine syrup in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, and Lagos state. The total street value of these items is over three billion, four hundred and twenty-eight million naira (N3,428,000,000.00),” the statement stated.
The majority of the seizures, which included 163,000 bottles of codeine syrup and two million 225 mg tafrodol pills, were made on Tuesday, April 29, 2025, when NDLEA officers, Customs Service officers, and other security agencies jointly inspected a watch-listed container at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex in Onne, Rivers state.
“In Lagos, on Tuesday, April 29, 1,500,000 pills of a controlled opioid were found in the Alaba-Rago neighborhood of Ojo from a suspect named Olarenwaju Wahab. The consignment’s origin was identified as Q104B Road 25, Victoria Garden City, Lekki, which is the home of an Obinna Kenneth, who is currently at large.”
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The announcement also disclosed that 42 packages of Canadian Loud, a highly strong cannabis strain concealed in food tins, were intercepted by officers at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja during a British Airways aircraft from Canada.
Three people, including the recipient, Monsurat Ewawunmi Lawson, were arrested between April 30 and May 3, according to the announcement.
A businessman named Bobby Morris Osa was arrested on May 2 at the Lagos airport for trying to board a trip to Italy with over 8,000 tramadol pills, according to Babafemi.
According to the statement, “on April 28, NDLEA officers intercepted 104 grams of tramadol and skunk concealed in bottles of body cream, thwarting an attempt to export drugs to Iraq through a courier company.”
The 52-year-old Managing Director of Ovidaq International Ltd. was apprehended in July 2024 in relation to the importation of over 2.6 million tramadol pills through the Apapa port, among other accomplishments.
Additionally, 51 packages of Canadian Loud were found during a search of his Lekki home.
Following ten months of arduous investigation, NDLEA agents on Saturday, April 26, arrested Dominic Chiegozie Obijiaku, 52, a wanted drug kingpin and the Managing Director of Ovidaq International Ltd., for his role in importing 2,616,060 tramadol 225 mg pills that the agency had intercepted on July 28, 2024, at Apapa seaport in Lagos. 51 wraps of Canadian Loud totaling 34 grams were seized during a follow-up operation at his Lekki home, according to the statement.
In Kano, Edo, Anambra, and Niger states, the agency reported significant arrests and seized hundreds of thousands of opioid tablets, codeine syrup bottles, pentazocine injection ampoules, and cannabis from a number of suspects.
