SaharaReporters on Monday exclusively reported that operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) busted a drug syndicate using the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos for illicit businesses.
The Cargo Manager for the Skyway Aviation Handling Company (SAHCO) simply identified as Jide, who is among the suspected drug traffickers busted for using the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos State, has been suspended by the company for drug trafficking, SaharaReporters has learnt.
SaharaReporters on Monday exclusively reported that operatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) busted a drug syndicate using the SAHCO shed of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja Lagos for illicit businesses.
The NDLEA had said it arrested six members of the syndicate using their official cover to facilitate the smuggling of illicit drugs through the Skyway Aviation Handling Company warehouse at the Lagos airport into the country.
According to a statement issued on Sunday by the spokesperson of the anti-narcotic agency, Femi Babafemi, 1,210,000 pills of tramadol were also seized from them in an operation that lasted weeks.
The NDLEA spokesperson had added that the operatives also recovered 14,481,519 pills of Tramadol and bottles of codeine syrup worth over N13 billion in street value.
Babafemi had identified the six suspects arrested during the operation as Oladele Sanya-Olu; Lawal Itunu Temitope; Sanamo Daniel; Udeh Monday; Musa Mutalib and Unege Icibor, adding that they were in NDLEA custody and that three other suspects – Sarki Salami; Abdullahi Aliyu (aka Aboki); and Monday Anwal, were on the run.
However, sources at the NDLEA said that the name of one of the people involved and identified as Jide who was said to be the cargo manager for SAHCO, was left out in the statement, and that Jide’s personal vehicle - a Mercedes Benz car - was used to carry the drugs.
In an update on the matter, NDLEA sources on Thursday told SaharaReporters that after the story on Monday, SAHCO suspended Jide.
However, a source said Jide is currently at large and that he is being hunted for arrest, but the NDLEA source expressed concern that despite everything, SAHCO and the Nigerian Customs Service are still the only two agencies with access to the shed.
“And it doesn’t matter if the shed belongs to SAHCO, this is now a matter of national security being compromised; so other agencies need the same access as SAHCO and Customs since they both seem compromised.
“Also, how could Customs have claimed that they forgot to lock the gate? Are they just tax collectors and forget that they are supposed to be protectors too? It’s shocking that SAHCO is still operating there at all,” the source had said.
When contacted for comments on what the NDLEA was doing to arrest the evading Jide, the anti-narcotics agency spokesperson, Babafemi, did not answer calls made to his phone number nor respond to a text message sent to him till the time of filing this report.