Fidelis Egede, a 70-year-old grandpa, and three others have been arrested by the operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ogun State for ‘cultivating cannabis’.

The suspects were arrested on Tuesday, August 13.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Femi Babafemi, NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy identified the other suspects as Samuel Sylvanus, Jato Samson and Francis Blessing.

Babafemi said the suspects were arrested when NDLEA operatives raided the cannabis plantation on six hectares at Alaka village in Ogun State.

The statement reads in part, “NDLEA operatives in Ogun state on Tuesday 13th August arrested 70-year-old Fidelis Egede and three others: Samuel Sylvanus, 31; Jato Samson, 33; and Francis Blessing, 28, when a cannabis plantation on six hectares was raided at Alaka village.

“Similarly, the duo of Joseph Apeh, 45, and Diamond Nnabuike, 21, were arrested with 145,400 pills of tramadol on Monday 12th August at Gadar Tamburawa, area of Kano.

“No less than Eight Hundred and Ninety-Two Thousand Four Hundred (892,400) bottles of codeine-based syrup worth Six Billion Two Hundred and Forty-Six Million Eight Hundred Thousand Naira (N6,246,800,000.00) in street value were recovered from five containers by NDLEA operatives at the Port Harcourt Ports Complex, Onne, Rivers state during a joint examination of the containers with men of the Nigeria Customs and other port stakeholders on Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th August 2024.

“The bottles of the opioid were packed in 5,337 cartons with a gross weight of 133,860 kilograms and shipped in five containers from India.

“In Ekiti State, NDLEA operatives supported by men of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies as well as community youths on Wednesday 14th August raided the Ise forest reserve, Saalaja camp, Ise-Ekiti, where 21,800 kilograms of cannabis sativa on 20 hectares of farm land were destroyed. The following day, Thursday 15th August, NDLEA officers on patrol along Onitsha-Enugu road in Enugu intercepted a Sienna bus marked SKA-24 AG from which 200.2kg of cannabis was recovered and the driver, Okoro Emmanuel, 41, arrested.

“In Abuja, NDLEA officers on patrol along Kwali-Gwagwalada expressway on Tuesday 13th August intercepted a truck from which 30,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection were recovered and three suspects: Ifeanyi Sunday, Jeremiah Paul and Edet Ubokobong arrested.

“While operatives in Niger state on Thursday 15th August arrested Ifeanyi Chukwueze in Kontagora town with 28, 500 pills of tramadol concealed in a loudspeaker, their counterparts in Kogi state on Wednesday 14th August nabbed Abba Yakubu with 40,000 pills of the same opioid heading to Kontagora. Another suspect, Tochukwu Onah, 39, was arrested by NDLEA officers at Paparanda, Lokoja on Thursday 15th August, 2024, with 1,000 ampoules of pentazocine injection.”