The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Bamidele Akingbade

  • NDLEA raids illicit drug producing factory

    Personnel of Abia State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has raided an illicit drug producing factory in Aba, Abia State.

    The NDLEA personnel also arrested four men in connection with the production of unlicensed Diazepam; a sleep-inducing anti-depressant drug.

    The Nation gathered that the illicit drug factory uses big lister generator, two packing and sealing machines, two tablet-making machines, one mixing machine, one big dryer and other appliances to carry out their unauthorized activities.

    There were also unsealed tablets with waste products from packaging littering the floor of the production rooms forming the laboratory when the newsmen visited the warehouse- turned- laboratory

    NDLEA state commander, Bamidele Akingbade who took newsmen round the drug production laboratory located at Omenihu Street, off Enugu – Port Harcourt Expressway, Osisioma local government area, near Aba said that the company which produces a brand of Diazepam, named Dizapam is doing so without license and in an unauthorized environment within a residential area.

    According to Akingbade the drug is not only substandard, but was manufactured with the name of an Indian drug company known as Shalina Laboratories PVT, India.

    He said that the personnel of the agency, acting on intelligence had carried out a survey of the facility before the raid.

    Read Also: Man sues NDLEA for son’s death

    Although the commander did not give the names of the arrested persons, he claimed that the suspects were caught working in the laboratory when his men carried out raid of the warehouse.

    He further disclosed that the owner of the factory who operates from Onitsha in Anambra State, is at large, stating that the agency’s personnel are on his trail and would be arraigned in court as soon as the long arm of the catches him.

    “What they do here is compounding and making diazepam illicitly because from the test that has been conducted, it proved positive for Diazepam but the production, registration is not controlled.

    “So it is a clandestine laboratory. He has no number. He has nothing to show government why he is producing the drug.

    “I want to add that Diazepam that is produced here is a controlled drug and if a drug is controlled it means that it affects the central nervous system and the use or abuse of it can lead to addiction or general damage to the user’s brain.

    “It is a depressant and used for treatment of insomnia and anxiety. So we expect that it should not be produced by a single individual in this environment”, he said.

    Akingbade while lamenting that some of the illicit drugs have infiltrated the market in Aba and the urged persons buying diazepam in Aba or the Southeast to check and ensure they got the authentic one.

    He also urged persons who reside in these areas with information on such unlicensed drug productions to report to NDLEA for prompt action in order to save lives.

     

  • NDLEA raids illicit drug base in Aba

    The Abia State command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) led by its commander, Bamidele Akingbade has raided a notorious base used by illegal drug peddlers and users in Aba at Orji Uzor Kalu Bridge near the popular Good Morning Market.

    Akingbade and his team also demolished shanties where the hoodlums engaged in their illicit indulgences.

    The NDLEA commander said that despite several efforts to raid the place, the hoodlums often escaped arrest, regrouped and continued their business.

    Though no arrest was made this time, the agency recovered hard drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and heroine in the process of destroying the shanties.

    The NDLEA boss appealed to members of the public to provide the command with credible information about activities of drug peddlers in their neighbourhoods, adding that the war against sale and consumption of illicit drugs in Aba and other parts of the state remains in force.

    He said, “With the demolition of the structures, drug traffickers and armed robbers will have no place to hide to commit any crime. We are equally going to establish an outpost there like we did at York Street to ensure that they didn’t come back.

    “I want to use this opportunity to thank the authorities of Nigerian Army and other sister agencies in the state for the assistance that they have been able to give us so far which resulted in the successes we have been able to record so far. We are equally appealing to the state government to help provide us with logistics to enable us function well and effectively. For us, the war against sale and consumption of illicit drugs in the state is total.”

     

  • NDLEA raids illicit drug base in Aba

    The Abia State command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) led by its commander, Bamidele Akingbade has raided a notorious base used by illegal drug peddlers and users in Aba at Orji Uzor Kalu Bridge near the popular Good Morning Market.

    Akingbade and his team also demolished shanties where the hoodlums engaged in their illicit indulgences.

    The NDLEA commander said that despite several efforts to raid the place, the hoodlums often escaped arrest, regrouped and continued their business.

    Though no arrest was made this time, the agency recovered hard drugs such as cocaine, cannabis and heroine in the process of destroying the shanties.

    The NDLEA boss appealed to members of the public to provide the command with credible information about activities of drug peddlers in their neighbourhoods, adding that the war against sale and consumption of illicit drugs in Aba and other parts of the state remains in force.

    He said, “With the demolition of the structures, drug traffickers and armed robbers will have no place to hide to commit any crime. We are equally going to establish an outpost there like we did at York Street to ensure that they didn’t come back.

    “I want to use this opportunity to thank the authorities of Nigerian Army and other sister agencies in the state for the assistance that they have been able to give us so far which resulted in the successes we have been able to record so far. We are equally appealing to the state government to help provide us with logistics to enable us function well and effectively. For us, the war against sale and consumption of illicit drugs in the state is total.”

     

  • NDLEA raids Abia market, arrests four hard drug suspects

    …To setup outpost near market to check dealers activities

     

    Personnel of the Abia State Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have reportedly arrested four suspected drug addicts in Aba, the commercial nerve of the state.

    The suspects, Sunny Opai (27yrs), Obinna Daniel (38yrs), Ese Emmanuel (22yrs) and Igwe Agu (19yrs), The Nation gathered were arrested when officers of the NDLEA raided one of the markets (Ahia Ohuru) popular for the sale of various type of textile materials in Aba, the southeast and Africa as well.

    The Commander of NDLEA, Bamidele Akingbade in a chat with our correspondent at the command’s headquarter along Ogbor Hill, Aba confirmed the arrests of the suspects.

    Akingbade stated that the suspects were arrested when personnel of the agency, acting on intelligence on the nefarious activities of the drug addicts which was posing great danger to traders and visitors alike, raided the market.

    According to Akingbade, the suspects and others at large were part of the group that regrouped in a section of the market after a successful joint operation in the same market in 2017.

    “Because of our inability to consistently raid and dislodge them from the part of Ahia Ohuru (New Market) where they were staying in the past to carry out their illegal activity, they regrouped and started unleashing mayhem such as raping of victims, snatching of phones, dispossessing of the victims of their valuables etc, we raided the place and arrested the suspects while the military gave us protection.”

    He added that efforts to check sale and smoking of hard and illicit drugs within and around the market were in top gear as the agency had already secured a place near the market to station an outpost that will be manned on 24hr basis by its personnel.

    The NDLEA boss who disclosed that a committee on drugs and narcotics made up by its personnel and officials of the state ministry of health that has a pivotal role to play in the war against drug abuse would soon meet with the governor of the state to discuss on how to ensure that activities of hard and illicit drug dealers were nipped in the bud.

    He also stated that efforts to involve the local government executives and traditional institutions across the 17 local councils of the state in the campaign against the sale and consumption of psychotropic substances would soon commence. With aggressive rural campaign.

  • NDLEA parades seven suspected drug peddlers

    NDLEA parades seven suspected drug peddlers

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Abia State Command have paraded seven male suspects, allegedly arrested for being in possession of banned/prohibited substances.

     

    The suspects, Uzochukwu Nnanna,35, Kingsley Ugwubueze 31,  Agbaeze Kalu,40,  Saidu Iliyasu, 29, Solution Kingsley, 22, Ikechukwu Nwankpa, 31, and Ugochukwu Nwachukwu, 22 were said to have been arrested in the month of March by NDLEA operatives.

    The State Commander of the agency, Bamidele Akingbade told newsmen that the suspects were apprehended at various venues in the state with illicit substances (psycho-tropical substances) weighing a total of about 14.23 kilograms.

    He said that some of the substances include Cocaine, Heroin and Indian hemp at the time of their arrests.

    The NDLEA boss said that the suspects would be arraigned in court after they must have concluded investigation into the matter.

    One of the suspects, Saidu Iliayasu, 29, a security man at a private hostel in Uturu, was said to have been arrested during a raid in Uturu after the incident at a private hostel in Uturu where two students of Abia State University, ABSU were reported to have been beheaded.

    Iliayasu was said to have been in possession of Indian hemp of over N3000 he was yet to sell to prospective buyers.

    According to Uzochukwu Nnanna, police officers caught him with Indian hemp and later handed him over to the NDLEA.

    Nnanna who pleaded for forgiveness stating that he was pushed to go into the trade because of hardship.
    Kingsley, admitted being in possession of cocaine (“White”), stating that he was pushed into the business after he lost his father at the end of his secondary education and had to seek help to further his education.

    He noted that it was in the process of seeking help that he met a man called Nwa-Charlie who introduced him into the Cocaine business as a way to help him raise money to go further.

    Another suspect, Kingsley Ugwubueze, a native of Ohaji-Egbema in Imo State said he was living in Ibadan by Orlu Street, Aba where he was caught for possessing Indian hemp last month.

    Forty year-old Agbaeze Kalu, a wheel barrow pusher said he went to buy hemp for personal consumption when he was caught by the Vigilante in Aba and handed over to NDLEA.

    He said that smoking weed helps to give him strength to continue working when he becomes weak after doing heavy jobs.

    “I now know that it is dangerous to my health and when I leave here I will not return to it”, he said.

    Ikechukwu Nwankpa, 31, from Eziama Nvosi who lives at the Omuma road said he was arrested with hemp.

    He said he was shoemaker until he had a problem and had no money to continue with the trade and then his friend urged him to sell hemp to help him.

    He said that if he sold his shoes in a day, he makes about N5000 gain but chose to be selling hemp which he could sale for N1, 500 for the time with gain of about N500.

    Ugochukwu Nwachukwu, Ugiri Mbano, Imo State said his father died in December 2015 and he had no one to help him which led him into the business of selling Indian hemp until he was caught.

    They all pleaded to be pardoned saying that if they are released, they would not return to hard drug trade and consumption again.