The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested a 20-year-old music artist, Godspower George Osahenrumwen, popularly known as Steady Boy, for allegedly trying to receive a shipment of illicit drugs smuggled from the United States for his manager in Lekki, Lagos.
According to the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, who disclosed this in a statement on Sunday, the arrest followed the interception of a large consignment of loud (a strong strain of cannabis) hidden inside three cartons of bathtubs at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja. The shipment reportedly arrived from the U.S. aboard a DHL flight on Tuesday.
Babafemi explained that Steady Boy was arrested at Bougain Villa, Primewater Gardens 2, Freedom Way, Lekki, when he showed up to collect the 140 bags of loud, weighing about 77.2kg, on behalf of a syndicate that includes his manager, Zion Osazee Omigie (aka Zee Money), who is currently on the run.
In a related operation, NDLEA operatives discovered a secret drug laboratory in the Ajao Estate area of Lagos, where Colorado (also known as Colos) was being produced in large quantities. The bust followed months of intelligence gathering after a batch of freshly cooked Colos was previously seized. The suspected owner of the lab was arrested, and the agency recovered 16.2kg of freshly cooked Colos, 1.7kg of ADB-CHMNACA Cannabinol, 4.5kg of Potassium Carbonate, and 91 litres of Dibromobutane.
Other NDLEA operations across the country also yielded significant results. In Lagos, operatives raided the hideout of a 28-year-old dealer, Afeez Salisu (alias Malu), in Mushin, recovering 16 compressed blocks of Ghana Loud and designer sachets and bottles of Colorado weighing 16.4kg.
In Kaduna, NDLEA officers intercepted a consignment of 84,710 capsules of tramadol along the Abuja–Jos highway. The drugs were traced to Musa Abdulkarim, 27, who was arrested in Bauchi. Two days later, operatives on the Abuja–Kaduna highway arrested Hamza Musa, 47, transporting 32,946 bottles of Akuskura, a new psychoactive substance. Another suspect, Saidu Nafiu, 30, was caught with 131.5kg of skunk in Igabi Local Government Area.
In Ogun State, three suspects — Seun Olaniyi (24), Rauf Asogba (28), and Ayinla Adeniyi (50) — were arrested in Abeokuta with 1,779kg of skunk after NDLEA officers tracked their movement from Benin Republic.
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The agency also made arrests in Bauchi, Kwara, Edo, and Ondo states, recovering thousands of pills and several tonnes of illegal substances in different operations. In Ondo, for instance, officers seized 2,829kg of skunk linked to Mrs. Ige Olarewaju and arrested Samuel Adebayo with 737kg of the same drug in Akure.
Meanwhile, in Taraba State, two suspects — Musbahu Abdullahi and Saleiman Ahmed — were nabbed in Wukari with 30,370 pills of tramadol and 177 grammes of methamphetamine while transporting the drugs from Onitsha to Yola.
NDLEA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), praised the agency’s officers for their professionalism and commitment, assuring Nigerians that the NDLEA would continue to dismantle drug syndicates across the country.
In the past 30 months, the NDLEA has arrested 45,853 suspects and secured 9,263 convictions, seizing more than 8.5 million kilograms of various illicit drugs in the process.
