OPERATIVES of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in Imo State on patrol along Aba-Owerri Expressway, have rescued five pregnant teenage girls suspected to be victims of child trafficking used as baby factory.
They were picked up while being relocated from their hideout in the Naze area of Owerri to Ikenegbu area of the state capital, the spokesperson for the anti-narcotics agency, Femi Babafemi, revealed in a statement on Sunday.
In their statement, the teenagers claimed they didn’t know the men who impregnated them.
“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.
The teenagers, according to the NDLEA, 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 noted.
Meanwhile, fresh attempts to export various quantities of methamphetamine and skunk by members of some transnational drug trafficking organisations through the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, and courier companies in Lagos were again thwarted by operatives of the NDLEA, who intercepted the illicit drug consignments concealed in different items.
At the Lagos airport, NDLEA operatives on Tuesday, September 12 intercepted an intending passenger going to Oman, Ugwu Tochukwu, while trying to board a Qatar Airways flight.
Upon a thorough search of his luggage, 7.50 kilogrammes of skunk were discovered concealed inside crayfish mixed with dry bitter leaf.
In the same vein, NDLEA officers of the Directorate of Operations and General Investigations attached to some courier companies also intercepted Dubai-bound 2.9 kilogrammes of skunk and 14 grammes of methamphetamine concealed in bags of Semovita and soles of ladies’ high heel shoes 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 same substance on Saturday, September 16, in 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.”
