NDLEA rescues pregnant teenagers in Imo, arrests drug traffickers
Officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Imo State, on patrol along the Aba-Owerri Expressway, have rescued five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking being used as baby factories.
According to a statement released on Sunday by the agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, they were captured while they were being moved from their hiding place in the Naze neighborhood of Owerri to the Ikenegbu neighborhood of the state capital.
The teenagers said they didn’t know the males who impregnated them in their statement.
“The victims are Chioma Emmanuel, 15; Uma Faith, 15; Divine Adimonye, 17; Opara Gift, 15; and Amarachi Mbata, 16. In their statements, they (pregnant teenagers) claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them,” the NDLEA statement on Sunday read in part.
According to the teenagers were rescued on September 13, 2023.
“The Imo State Command of the agency has since been directed to hand them over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons for further investigation,” Babafemi added.
Meanwhile, NDLEA agents once again foiled new attempts by members of some transnational drug trafficking organizations to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, and courier services in Lagos. The illicit drug consignments were intercepted and hidden inside various items.
On Tuesday, September 12, NDLEA agents at the Lagos airport stopped Ugwu Tochukwu from boarding a Qatar Airways flight with the intention of traveling to Oman.
7.50 kg of skunk were found hidden inside crayfish mixed with dried bitter leaf after a thorough inspection of his luggage.
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In a similar vein, NDLEA agents from the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier services also detained cargo intended for Dubai that included 14 grammes of methamphetamine and 2.9 kilograms of skunk, both of which were hidden in the soles of women’s high-heeled shoes and Semovita bags, respectively.
Babafemi added, “While two suspects, Moses Akowe, 32; and Sunday Gabriel, 31, were arrested with 227.1kgs of cannabis on Tuesday, September 11, at Ikebe village, Ankpa LGA, Kogi State, a female suspect, Bilikisu Salako, 35, was nabbed with 108kgs of the same substance on Saturday, September 16, in the Ifo area of Ogun State.
“Hundred blocks of cannabis weighing 55kgs and 600 bottles of codeine-based syrup seized from the duo of Salisu Murtala and Shafi’u Dahiru on Tuesday, September 11, along Abuja Road have been traced to two other suspects; Muntari Nasiru and Yusuf Ali, who were arrested in follow-up operations in Kano.
“In FCT, a 27-year-old Kingsley Chimaobi was arrested with 6,000 bottles of codeine-based syrup along Lokogoma-Abuja road on Tuesday, September 11.
“Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Lagos on Wednesday, September 13, sentenced to five years imprisonment a drug dealer, Segun Odeyemi for trafficking and dealing in 3,842 kilogrammes of skunk.
“He was arrested on Saturday, July 1, while conveying 89 jumbo bags of the illicit substance in his truck around Eleganza area of Ajah, Lekki. He was subsequently charged in Suit Number FHC/L/388C/2023 presided over by Justice Akintayo Aluko.”
