By Stephen Ubanna
Buba Marwa, a retired Army Brigadier General and now Chairman, Nigerian Drug Law enforcement Agency, NDLEA, appears to have toughened Comptroller Yusuf Malanta, Area Controller. The NDLEA Chairman Apapa had given the impression that the Apapa port is a home of drug barons given the large quantities of Tramadol drugs of different dosages , ranging from 120 mg, 200 mg , 225, mg to 2050 mg that passed through the port in 2019.
He had shocked Nigerians when he revealed that the agency recently ”uncovered the importation of two Containers of Tramadol comprising 1,284 cartons with a market value of over N22 million which had entered into the Nigerian market through the Apapa port in 2019.
Note that The Apapa Command Area Controller as at the year the banned Phamarceutical drug had entered the Nigerian market was Muhammed Abba -Kura, and now an Assistant Comptroller General, Customs Headquarters while Catherine Ekekezie, an Assistant Comptroller General, now a Deputy Comptroller General, was the Customs Coordinator, overseeing the Customs Zone A, comprising of the Lagos seaports airport and Land border Areas , including other Area Commands in the south west geo-political zone.
Many believe that the Apapa Customs Command may have played into hands of the NDLEA Operatives to beam its searchlight at the port when a Hyndai ambulance fitted with siren used as distraction carrying hydrochloride of 12mg was intercepted at the exit gate in 2019. The hydrochloride Tramadol were said to have be stolen from a Container awaiting for examination at the port.
The NDLEA Authorities may have encouraged to speak out with boldness in recent times that the Apapa port is a home of drug barons when it reported that it had made the discovery of the use Apapa port in 2019 to import two Containers load of Tramadol containing 1, 284 cartons valued at about N22 billion into the country through the port during the ongoing investigations of Afam Emmanuel Ukatu, a billionaire Chairman/ Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of Mallinson Group of Companies, based in Lagos, the nation’s Commercial nerve centre.
Ukatu, the billionaire drug baron could have volunteered information on the activities of the drug cartel at the port during interrogations by the agency Operatives because he has been involved in the importation of large quantities of Tramadol , of different dosages passes through the Apapa port over the years which were exited from the port to his warehouses. One of such Tramadol warehouses owned by him was at Ojota, which was accessible to customers.
Comptroller Malanta, may have known from the onset that the drug barons are giving the premier port bad name that he has become toughed to deal ruthlessly with the suspected drug barons at the port. This may have informed why he had tightened up security at the port over the last two years to checkmate the cargoes exiting the port and those being transferred to the bonded terminals outside the port to ensure that the right thing is done.
An insider told Magazine that the NDLEA boss repeated negative remarks about the Apapa port as a home of drug barons may have informed why the Apapa Customs Command Area Controller, is not sparing the suspected agents of the drug barons as many of them have forced to go under ground.
Note that in arresting the billionaire drug baron, Ukatu, who is now helping the the NDLEA Authorities in their investigation to track other barons on the run,believed to have worked closely with Abbba kyari a former Deputy Commissioner of Police, who had -led the Intelligence Response Team , IRT, in Lagos, after over over five years of close surveillance.
He may have played into the hands of the Police IRT Team after five cartons of Tramadol were seized from one of his staff on May 4, 2021, when he had sent them ‘’to sell to an undercover police officers from the Team IRT. The cartons of Tramadol was said to have been negotiated at N17 million each as against the street market value that ranged between N18 million and N20 million, per carton.
The arrest of the billionaire drug baron staff was said to have facilitated the discovery of additional 197 cartons of Tramadol drugs of 225Kg at his warehouse at Ojota, Lagos, by the IRT Team.The market value of the 192 cartons of Tramadol, imported into the country and exited through the Apapa port was put at about N3 billion.
Many had expected that with the arrest of Ukatu, the billionaire drug baron, it will force other Tramadol importers both within and outside the country to stop the illegal business and go into importation of genuine goods, underground but the reverse was the case. The drug cargo were said have devised new strategies of exiting the banned drugs from the port to their warehouse without playing into the hands of the Customs and theNDLEA Operatives, who were strategically positioned at the port and its environs.
Informed sources told The Magazine that ever since the Marwa led NDLEA, started releasing regular reports that large quantities of Tramadol the drugs ranging from 120mg, 200mg, 225mg to 250 mg, enter the Nigerian market through the Apapa port, the Apapa Command Area Controller was said to have read the riot act to the officers and men of the Command to ensure that only approved Pharmaceutical products are released from the port.
He was said to have sounded a note of warning to the officers at the terminals outside the port environment that he would not want to hear that tramadol or any other banned drug was released and intercepted by the NDLEA Operatives or any of the Customs Intervention Units, particular, the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A, Lagos Roving other Patrol Teams of the Command on the road.
Between 2020 and now, the Command was said to have made seizures of large quantities of Tramadol Concealed in Containers loaded with dutiable goods at different times at the APM and sifax terminals which were said to have been handed over to the NDLEA, for further Investigations in spirit of inter-agency relationship.
Babatunde Olomo, the then Deputy Comptroller overseeing the Command Enforcement Unit, and now Comptroller, awaiting to be deployed at the Customs Headquarters was said to have made tramadol and dangerous Pharmaceutical products and other drugs within the short period he headed the Command Enforcement Unit which were said to have been handed to the NDLEA.
There is no gainsaying the fact that Ukatu, the Igbo billionaire drug baron may not have being alone in the Tramadol drug business as there may be others using the neighbouring ports in the West and Central African sub-region to do so. The port that was said to have been mostly used by the drug barons to transit Tramadol into the Nigerian market was the Autonomous port of Benin, Cotonou, in Republic of Benin.
Recall that in 2018, the Sokoto Customs Command, had intercepted 465 packs of Tramadol along Illela road, being smuggled into the country from the neighbouring Republic of Niger. These are transit Pharmaceutical Tramadol drugs imported through Benin Republic meant for the Nigerien market but which may have developed wings on transit to the land-locked country into the Nigerian market. In 2021, the Command was said to have also seized 554 cartons of Tramadol Concealed in a ‘’40’’ Container on transit from Benin to Niger.
It is instructive to note that in 2021, Bello Mohammed Jibo, and his Operation Officers had intercepted N1.45 million worth of Tramadol Concealed in 200 packages of adult Dapers in a transit Container, marked MRKU 9090415. it was said to have been handed over to officials of the Nigerian Agenncy for food and Drug Administration for further Investigations.
This clearly shows that the drug barons are not only using the Lagos port of Apapa to smuggle Tramadol into the Nigerian market but uses the neighbouring Republic of Benin and Niger to do so through the land borders across the country.
Early this year. Muhammed Abdullahi, an Assistant Comptroller and the FOU, Zone A, Head of the Operations and Lagos Roving Unit, and his Team memembers at the instance of Deputy Comptroller Kehinde Hussain Ejibuno, the Command acting Area Controller, had raided the Kirikiri area Apapa Area , on information where they carted away over N2 billion worth of Tramadol from a warehouse which were transferred to to the Command premises. There are indications that the cartomns of Tramadol drugs may have exited Apapa port to the warehouse believed to be owned by an unknown baron who had been on the run since the Customs Operatives broke into the warehouse.
Customs Operatives at the nation’s seaports and the Land border Area, are said to be closely working together with the officials from the other security agencies, particular, NDLEA, and NAFDDAC, to ensure that these prohibited drugs, were not smuggled into the country.
Many believe that the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram, The Islamic State of West African Province,ISWAP and the Bandits Group fighters including other criminal elements across the country, may e taking the drugs which may have giving the boldness to intensify their attack and mindless killing of innocent citizens in different parts of the country. From the north west, north central and south east, geo-political regions of the country, the story is the same: increasing insecurity.
Going by the Economic Community of West African State, ECOWAS, Common External Tariff, CET, 2017 -2021, which had been revised in the 2022-2026 edition,that had been adopted by the Nigerian government, for implementation by the Ali’s led NCS, with effect from May 1, 2022, hydrocloride Tramadol ranging from 120mg, 200mg, 200mg 225mg, and250 mg, and Syrups including Codeine and other dangerous Pharmaceutical drugs remained on the country’s import prohibition list, meaning that the NCS, NDLEA and the NAFDAC, personnel at the nation’s seaports would have more job to do to make Nigeria, a ’’ drug free nation’’.
