NDLEA Arrests Two Grandpas, Aged 84 And 75, For ‘Selling Drugs To Secondary School Students In Abia’

NDLEA Arrests Two Grandpas, Aged 84 And 75, For ‘Selling Drugs To Secondary School Students In Abia’

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said its operatives have arrested two elderly men, aged 84 and 75, over alleged involvement in the sale of illicit drugs to teenage secondary school students in Umuahia, the Abia State capital.

The anti-narcotics agency said 84-year-old pensioner, Godfrey Orji, and 75-year-old Godwin Obulunbiya Obiora are currently in custody and will be prosecuted after investigations.

According to a statement issued on Sunday by NDLEA Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, Obiora was arrested on Friday, June 19, following intelligence reports linking him to the sale of illicit drugs to students and other users from his patent medicine store located at 4 Club Road, Umuahia.

Babafemi said a search of the premises led to the recovery of 4.64 kilograms of opioids, including tramadol and diazepam.

Drug

In a separate incident, Orji, an octogenarian pensioner, was arrested on Thursday, June 18, after security guards at Saint Silas Secondary School, Old Umuahia, caught him supplying illicit drugs to two teenage students.

The school guards handed the suspect and the students over to the police, who subsequently transferred the case to NDLEA.

Babafemi said that one of the teenagers, a 15-year-old Senior Secondary School 2 student, told investigators that Orji had been supplying him with drugs, which he consumed and also resold to fellow students.

While the two elderly suspects are expected to face trial, Babafemi said the affected students have been placed on counselling and rehabilitation programmes.