Reported by: Ijeoma G | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested two elderly men aged 84 and 75 for allegedly supplying and selling illicit drugs, including tramadol and diazepam, to secondary school students in Umuahia, Abia State. The suspects, identified as Godfrey Orji, 84, and Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora, 75, were apprehended in separate operations on June 18 and 19, 2026, the agency announced on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
According to a statement by the NDLEA’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora was arrested on Friday, June 19, 2026, following credible intelligence that he was selling illicit substances to young students and other users from his patent medicine store located at 4 Club Road, Umuahia. A search of his premises led to the recovery of 4.64 kilograms of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.
In a separate case, 84-year-old Godfrey Orji, a pensioner, was arrested after security guards at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, caught him supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students on the school premises. He was handed over to the police and later transferred to the NDLEA on Thursday, June 18, 2026. During interrogation, one of the teenagers, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School Two (SS2) student, confessed that Orji regularly supplied him with drugs, which he both consumed and resold to fellow students.
The NDLEA confirmed that both elderly suspects will be prosecuted for drug trafficking and the deliberate corruption of minors, while the students involved have been placed under counselling and rehabilitation programmes. The agency also announced a series of other drug seizures and arrests across the country. In Lagos, operatives intercepted a 9.5kg consignment of ADB-Chminaca, a synthetic cannabinoid, which originated from China and was concealed in a carton. In another operation, they raided the home of a wanted drug dealer, Lukman Badmus, in the Ogombo area of Ajah, recovering codeine syrup and skunk.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (retd.), commended officers involved in the operations and urged them to sustain the momentum in the nationwide drug control campaign. The agency also continued its War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) sensitization campaigns in schools, worship centres, and communities as part of efforts to curb substance abuse. The arrests have sparked widespread outrage in Abia State, with community leaders and civil society groups urging Governor Alex Otti to complement ongoing infrastructural development with a deliberate focus on human capital development and moral re-engineering to address the rising tide of drug abuse among youths.
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