NURTW Chairman, 3 Others Arrested For Drug Trafficking

Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, in Ijero local government area of Ekiti state, Babatunde Babade, 45, has been arrested for drug trafficking.

Also alongside the NURTW chairman for drug trafficking, were two others identified as Ilesanmi Shola, 35, and Babajide Johnson, aged 45.

Spokesperson for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, said in a statement on Sunday, that the transport union leader was caught with 52.5kilograms of skunk in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

He was allegedly caught while conveying bags of the banned drug in his 1997 model blue Mazda car with registration number: Ekiti JER194 AE from Akure to Ekiti state.

Babade, popularly called BB, was taken into custody along with others soon after his arrest at about 2pm on Sunday, July 18, 2021 for interrogation, according to Babafemi.

He allegedly admitted ownership of the vehicle used for conveying the drug, but said the car was earlier intercepted by some security agents who detained the two other suspects, his car and eight bags containing cannabis sativa while his brother who drove the vehicle fled.

Babade, however, reportedly claimed that following his intervention, the security agents released the suspects and his car to him after taking two of the eight bags containing the drug and N60, 000 from him, before he later ran into NDLEA officers while on his way back to Ekiti.

Meanwhile, operatives of the NDLEA in Benue State have intercepted another suspected interstate drug trafficker, 29-year-old Odinaka Ugwuanyi, along Apir road, Makurdi with 124,000 tablets of Tramadol, Diazepam and Exol-5, weighing a total of 22.55 kilograms.

The suspect, who was arrested at about 8am on Saturday, July 17, 2021 in a commercial vehicle, said he is from Nsukka local government area of Enugu state.

He also claimed another passenger he knows who sat next to him in the vehicle dropped the bag containing the drugs with him and fled upon sighting NDLEA officers.

Babafemi said chairman of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), has commended the doggedness of the commanders, officers and men of the agency in Ondo and Benue states in the ongoing offensive action against drug barons, traffickers and peddlers.

He charged them along with their colleagues in other commands to remain resolute in the discharge of their constitutional responsibilities.