The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has impounded 30 tons of tramadol, totaling 52, 827, 900 tablets with street value of over N9 billion at the Lekki Deep Sea Port in Lagos in the last one month.
The command said that its onslaught was in consonance with Gen. Buba Marwa, the Chairman of NDLEA’s declaration of war against drug merchants and his operational promise to disrupt and dismantle the availability, affordability and accessibility of harmful drugs.
NDLEA said the amount of money involved in the seized drugs was in excess of many states of the country’s monthly internally generated revenues (IGRs). Mr. Jonah Achema, Area Commander, NDLEA Lekki Deep Sea Port Special Area Command, in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos, said that the seizures were done in two quick successions.
According to Achema, who was the erstwhile Spokesman of NDLEA, the first of the successful operation was on October 11, 2024 through a tip-off. He said, a 40ft container from Karachi, Pakistan, was brought down at the port for thorough examination, stressing that the container was stockpiled with hundreds of cartons of assorted illicit tramadol.
He explained that on this operation alone, the agency recovered 389 cartons of 225 milligrams of tramadol.
He maintained that this was more than 100 percent above the permissible threshold of tramadol allowed in the market.
A total of 389 cartons of the illicit substance weighing 16 tons were averted from wreaking havoc on the citizenry, Achema said.
Also, on November 5, 2024, another 40ft container of tramadol was intercepted and no fewer than 360 cartons were recovered.
He explained that this time around, the tablets were in 250 milligrams and were very much higher than the permissible threshold. He added: “The two drug importations followed similar pattern. The drugs were concealed in brown cartons while each carton is wrapped with a gray and black sack bags hauled into the 2 x 40 containers via vessels with the same Karachi, Pakistan origin.
“The containers bear false declarations of building materials and auto-parts, respectively. The drugs were destined for the Nigeria illicit drug market.”
Achema declared that the seizures had saved the economy of fiscal pressure and distortions. “This is better appreciated when juxtaposed with the crave for tramadol by terrorists and bandits”, Achema added.
He further warned drug traffickers to desist from the illicit trade, maintaining that the agency had perfected measures with proven capacity and capability to spot any deadly container upon take-off from the source country.
He added that the command was also leveraging on the synergy with sister agencies at the port. According to him, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NDLEA and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had been helpful in intelligence sharing and joint operations.
He posited that Marwa made no mistake in putting on ground officers and men of the agency at the outset of Lekki Deep Sea Port, which is the fastest growing sea port in the country at present.
He expressed that drug traffickers had to bid their time before taking a gamble with their deadly drug merchandise through the port, noting that when the drug merchants were ready to try their luck, after a long wait, they ran into the waiting hands of the counter-narcotic agency.
