BEVERLY HILLS, March 23, (THEWILL) – The Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja, Lagos Command of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has seized illicit drugs weighing 979.667kgs between January and March, 2021.
Analyses of the seizures indicate that 63.217kg of cocaine, 0.950grms of heroin, 13.3kg of cannabis sativa and over 500kgs of khat leaves were involved.
Mr. Garba Ahmadu, Commander, NDLEA, MMIA gave the figure on Monday during a courtesy visit of the League of Airport and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) executives to the command at their MMIA, Lagos.
Ahmadu also stated that the command arrested 14 suspects within the period, adding that they have been able to secure 14 prosecutions in the court.
“These are out of the numbers that were taken and successfully prosecuted and get convictions for 12 people,” he said.
Disclosing further, Ahmadu said “I think what I want to stress is that this year, we are able to have the largest single seizure of 26.850kg of cocaine. This is very interesting because it was brought in by a lady. If you look at, this is more than half a bag of rice and if you look at how she did it, she just checked it in as a check-in luggage and passed it through. That is a very serious seizure. I think our officers should be commended for this”.
“We have a huge seizure of cocaine this year. This is a little different from what is obtained in previous years. In the first quarter of 2020, we had some huge seizures, but not the same for 2018 and 2019”, the commander said.
About collaboration with other agencies, Ahmadu said: “There are so many stakeholders at the airport and my relationship with them has been fantastic, starting with the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN). FAAN has been a good partner in enabling us to do our work. The scanners at the entry and exit points of the airport belong to FAAN and that is what we use to scan luggage. Aside from that we have instances where we do a lot of follow-up and the only thing we can rely on is the CCTV cameras of FAAN. So, they have been up and doing in helping us to win the war against illicit drugs”.
He confirmed that other security agencies have been supporting NDLEA positively to make sure the agency actualises its mandate.
“Our international partners have been fantastic. Some of the equipment we have now is rated the best in any part of the world. I can say we are getting there, but we are not there yet, but everyone is playing its bit.
We also have access to international training and they have gone a long way in boosting the efficiency of our colleagues. Our officers are getting better capacity and we have more and better equipment to make sure we do a lot and actually, results are coming in and I hope we can do better.”
He cited their major challenge as shortage of manpower, funding, equipment and better baggage scanners.
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