Felix Mbata, Lagos state
It was a Sunday morning like any other at Terminal 2 of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos. Passengers hurried to catch their flights, but 38-year-old Philip Tunde would not make his.
Ahead of his Royal Air Maroc flight to Milan, Italy, on 27th September 2026, NDLEA operatives at the joint screening point stopped him for a thorough check. What they found shocked even seasoned officers: 16 parcels of white powdery substance neatly sewn into the soles of eight pairs of trainers and canvas shoes, and another 195 wraps carefully concealed in the railings of four travelling bags.
Tests confirmed it was cocaine, weighing 4.80 kilograms in total.
When interrogated, Tunde broke down. He confessed he paid N16 million in cash for the cocaine hidden in the shoes. The consignment in the bags, he said, belonged to his partner in Italy awaiting delivery. His source of funds? Compensation paid to him by a plastic manufacturing company in Italy after an industrial accident in which he lost the tips of two fingers. From victim to suspected trafficker, his journey ended in the NDLEA net.
But that was just the beginning of a whirlwind week for the anti-narcotic agency.
Following months of intelligence and tracking shipments from their ports of origin, NDLEA operatives struck at Nigeria’s three busiest seaports: Apapa, Tincan Island in Lagos, and Onne in Rivers State, foiling container consignments of Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, and codeine-based syrup worth over N5 billion.
At Apapa Port on Saturday, 3rd September, acting on intelligence, officers with men of Customs and other stakeholders conducted a 100 per cent examination on two containers from Bangkok, Thailand. Inside, hidden in two refrigerators and two cartons, were 161 parcels of Thai Loud weighing 124kg, with a street value of N372,000,000.
At Onne Port, two containers watch-listed based on processed intelligence were jointly examined. In one, officers found 40 packs of Loud weighing 22kg hidden in a travelling bag and inside three of five imported vehicles — a Toyota Matrix, Toyota Corolla and Hyundai Elantra. The second container held a staggering 109,600 bottles of codeine-based cough syrup weighing 16,440kg. Investigators discovered the container had left India for Saudi Arabia where its origin history was deleted to avoid being targeted. Together, the Onne seizures were valued at N833,200,000.
The biggest hit came at Tincan Island Port on Tuesday, 29th September. A watch-listed container from Montreal, Canada, was jointly examined, revealing 2,595 parcels of Canadian Loud weighing 1,297.5kg concealed in a Toyota Sienna, a Hyundai Elantra, 24 blue drums and six jumbo bags. Street value: over N3.8 billion.
While the ports crackdown lasted, the war raged in the forests and hinterlands.
On Wednesday, 30th September, NDLEA operatives stormed Area 4, Ife South Local Government Area of Osun State, and destroyed 20,234 kilograms of skunk cultivated on 8.0936 hectares of cannabis farmland.
A day earlier, on Tuesday, 29th September 2026, 41-year-old Agbo Dennis was arrested at West of Mines area of Jos North, Plateau State, after 33 bags of skunk weighing 385kg were seized from him.
In Lagos, on Monday, 28th September, operatives raided an unoccupied compound at Divine Estate, Ago Palace, recovering 209,000 tablets of tramadol. In a follow-up operation on Wednesday, 30th September, 23-year-old Ekundayo Taiwo was nabbed at Ladipo Spare Parts Market. His arrest followed the interception of 61 grams of Colorado, a synthetic cannabis strain, and 24 grams of methamphetamine hidden in an energy drink bottle and sent as a waybill package through a commercial bus driver along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway the previous day.
On the Okene-Lokoja highway in Kogi State, also on Wednesday, 30th September, officers intercepted a Lagos-Abuja commuter bus and discovered a waybill concealing two sachets of methamphetamine weighing 1kg. A follow-up operation led to the arrest of the owner, 29-year-old Michael Chukwuememka Uzoma, at Utako, Abuja.
ln Edo State on Friday, 2nd October, the residence of 35-year-old Saturday Omimi at Uyere community, Ovia North-East LGA, was raided, yielding 32.2kg of cannabis sativa. That same day, 23-year-old Osazuwa Iyabor Michael was arrested at Auchi Bypass, Benin City, with a cocktail of drugs: 59 grams of Loud, 12 grams of Colorado, 19 grams of tramadol, 16 grams of methamphetamine, 4 grams of Swinol and 4 grams of Molly.
Then came the arrest that closed a six-year chapter. On Tuesday, 29th September, 47-year-old fugitive Idris Mohammed Kurra was finally apprehended. Kurra had been standing trial at the Federal High Court, Jos, Plateau State, for possession and dealing in 198 kilograms of skunk, but jumped bail granted in December 2020 and vanished. Six years on, the law caught up with him.
Amidst the enforcement blitz, the Agency did not relent on prevention. Its Commands continued War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization lectures in schools, worship centres, workplaces and communities, including St. Paul’s Secondary School, Oji, Enugu; Olu-Odo Primary School, Igbogbo, Ikorodu, Lagos; Government Junior Secondary School, Tsamiya, Kano; Christ’s School, Ado Ekiti; and Government Science Secondary School, Lokoja, Kogi State.
Commending the officers and men of MMIA, Apapa, Tincan, PHPC, Lagos, Edo, Bauchi, Plateau and Osun Commands for their professionalism and intelligence-driven operations, NDLEA Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), charged them to sustain the onslaught against drug trafficking networks while continuing the Agency’s balanced approach to drug control.
From shoe soles in Lagos to cannabis forests in Osun, from Canadian containers to a six-year fugitive, it was a week that proved again: there is no hiding place for drug traffickers.