Nigeria’s war against narcotics has entered a striking new chapter after operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency dismantled a sprawling drug trafficking network spanning multiple states, hauling in suspects whose profiles have challenged every assumption about who drives the illicit trade, including a 93-year-old man and a 69-year-old medical doctor.
The coordinated, intelligence driven operations, conducted over the course of a single week, cut across Abia, Kano, Ogun, Lagos, Imo, Niger, Edo, Borno and the Federal Capital Territory, exposing a network remarkable not only for its geographic reach but for the diversity of individuals it has drawn into its orbit.
NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi confirmed the arrests and seizures in a statement on Sunday, providing details that painted a picture of an illicit trade that has embedded itself across social classes, professions and age groups with equal indifference.
A 93-Year-Old in the Dock
Among the most startling arrests was that of Friday Chigbu, a nonagenarian whose age alone made his apprehension one of the more extraordinary moments in the agency’s recent operational history. Chigbu, 93, was arrested at his residence in the Osisioma Local Government Area of Abia State, where operatives recovered 7.7 kilogrammes of skunk.
In a disclosure that added further layers of complexity to the case, Chigbu reportedly told investigators that he had been a cannabis user since 1959, making his personal relationship with the substance older than many of the officers who arrested him. He claimed to have only ventured into distribution within the past year, a detail the agency noted as it continued its investigations.
Doctor Accused of Running International Cocaine Operation
In a separate but equally significant case, NDLEA operatives intercepted an Ivorian national, Gohouri Michael, at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Milan, Italy. Examination revealed that he had ingested 82 wraps of cocaine with a combined weight of 1.49 kilogrammes, reportedly in exchange for a promised payment of five thousand euros upon successful delivery to his destination.
The trail left by that interception led investigators to Ogun State and to the doorstep of Dr. Chudi Ofomata, a 69-year-old physician alleged to have served as the operational coordinator of the scheme, directing the courier’s movements and managing the logistics of the delivery from behind the scenes. A search of his residence yielded controlled substances including promazepam and promethazine injections, deepening the case against him.
A Week of Significant Seizures
Beyond those headline cases, the week’s operations produced a succession of substantial seizures and arrests across the country that underscored the scale of the challenge NDLEA continues to confront.
In Niger State, a couple was arrested after operatives discovered 118 kilogrammes of skunk concealed in the kitchen of their home. In Ogun State, three suspects were taken into custody following a raid in Sango-Ota that yielded 34 kilogrammes of cannabis. In Imo State, a 26-year-old woman was intercepted along the Onitsha-Owerri road carrying 56.2 kilogrammes of narcotics.
Borno State produced a significant haul of a different kind, with officers seizing thousands of tablets of Rohypnol alongside large volumes of codeine syrup and pentazocine injections that had been concealed inside a trailer transporting spare parts, a method of concealment that speaks to the sophistication of the networks NDLEA is contending with.
In Lagos, two separate operations added considerably to the week’s total. Fifteen kilogrammes of high grade cannabis known in street parlance as Scottish Loud was recovered from a commercial bus, while a subsequent raid in Mushin uncovered 26,800 bottles of codeine syrup. In Abuja, eight suspects were arrested during a targeted raid on a known drug hub, with more than 11 kilogrammes of skunk recovered from the location.
Edo State Delivers the Largest Single Haul
The most consequential single seizure of the week came from Edo State, where NDLEA operatives stopped two trucks and discovered a combined 7,245 kilogrammes of skunk hidden among cartons of beer, a consignment that was reportedly bound for Abuja. Five suspects were arrested in connection with the interception, which represented one of the larger single drug hauls recorded by the agency in recent memory.
Beyond Enforcement
Babafemi noted that alongside its enforcement activities, the agency continued to press forward with its War Against Drug Abuse campaign, taking sensitisation programmes into schools, motor parks and community gatherings across the country with the goal of reducing demand at the grassroots level rather than focusing exclusively on supply suppression.
NDLEA Chairman Buba Marwa commended officers across all the states involved for the professionalism and coordination that produced the week’s results, while reiterating that the twin pillars of the agency’s strategy, tackling supply through enforcement and tackling demand through education, must be pursued with equal and sustained vigour if Nigeria’s anti-narcotics efforts are to produce lasting results.
