The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency intercepted 40,250 kilograms of codeine-based syrup imported from India at the Apapa seaport in Lagos.

This comes just a week after the DEA seized 14,080kg of the prohibited substance at the same port.

Femi Babafemi, Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA Headquarters, Abuja, announced this in a statement on Thursday.

Read Also:  Breaking: NNPC exposes companies responsible for importing adulterated fuel

“The drug bust follows a similar seizure of 14,080 kilograms of codeine syrup and 4,352.43 kilograms of cold caps used to conceal the former in a 40-foot container imported from India on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, at the Apapa port,” he said. Both seizures were made as a result of intelligence from foreign partners and cooperation from other port stakeholders such as Customs, the Department of Homeland Security, the Navy, and others.
“The latest consignments intercepted on Tuesday 8th February were brought into the country in two containers marked HLBU 2239792 with 1,125 cartons of the drug and HLBU 1067338 with 1,751 cartons, with a market value of N2,012,500,000 (Two Billion, Twelve Million and Five Hundred Thousand Naira).

“The consignments were seized at the Port Express Bonded Terminal, Berger-Apapa after they were discovered concealed behind cartons of hypergra 200mg and deluxe chilly cutters, after which the Agency’s sniffer dogs were brought in to identify the illegal substance.”
Reacting, Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd), commended officers and men of the Apapa Port Special Area Command of the Agency for their vigilance. He expressed gratitude to foreign partners for sharing timely intelligence and other port stakeholders for their cooperation.

Read Also:  Ondo doctors embark on two-day warning strike in response to colleague’s assault

Marwa said the Agency remains poised to deal decisive blows to drug cartels this year by ensuring that no gram of illicit drug is allowed to come into or pass through Nigeria to other countries.

After a patient’s son assaulted one of its members, the Association of Resident Doctors at the University of Medical Sciences Teaching Hospital, UNIMEDTH, in Ondo State, has begun a two-day warning strike.

Residents of doctors protested peacefully in Ondo and Akure at the same time, demanding adequate security in hospital environments to prevent further attacks by patients or their relatives.

Read Also:  Nigeria reports 37 new COVID-19 infections, bringing total cases to 253,875

On Wednesday, a doctor was assaulted while on duty by a patient’s relative.

According to UNIMETH ARD President John Matthew, the attack was unnecessary.

One of the protesting doctors, Dr. Ibidapo Bolayemi, claimed that over 100 doctors had left the hospital, leaving only 45 doctors to care for patients.
“It’s unfortunate that we’ve ended up in this precarious position. Over 100 employees have departed the hospital, putting a strain on us.

“To solve the problem, we ask the state government to hire additional doctors. We also want the government to ensure that the facility is adequately secured,” he said.

Read Also:  Breaking: NNPC exposes companies responsible for importing adulterated fuel

Meanwhile, the hospital’s Chief Medical Director, Dr. Oluwole Ige, has criticized the resident doctors’ decision to go on a two-day warning strike in response to the attack on their colleague.

Dr. Ige, who criticized the doctor’s assault, said the strike was uncalled for because the situation had been settled.

While reacting to the recent killing of a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Jibia among others, the Coalition of Northern Groups, Katsina State chapter, described the killing of over 50 innocent citizens in the state by terrorists in one month as worrisome and demoralizing.

“It is quite shocking and frightening to note that “some of our villages are firmly under the control of the bandits where levies or taxes are imposed on our people, subjecting them to further economic deprivation and devastation,” CNG Northwest Coordinator Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi said in a condolence message to the bereaved and the state. Over 50 innocent, defenseless, and impoverished citizens of the state have been killed systematically in the last four weeks, according to the stories.”

Read Also:  Nigeria reports 37 new COVID-19 infections, bringing total cases to 253,875

Considering the recent spike in the rate of attack in the state, CNG says it is obvious that “the government and its functionaries have lost the political will and determination to decisively deal with the problems once and for all,” citing the recent unchecked decimation, destruction of lives, abuse and exploitation of women, and extortion of poverty-stricken communities by terrorists in the state.

While decrying the ongoing killings, abductions, maiming and exploitations by terrorists of helpless and defenceless citizens in the state, CNG says it appears that “the Federal Government have completely surrendered prerogative of the use of force to the bandits/ terrorists who now operate parallel governments in villages and communities in the state, where they impose taxes and levies on villages and kill people at will.”

To end the tide, the CNG charged the youth to rise up to the occasion and equally called on traditional rulers to stand with their people over the difficult and scary situation in the bid to combat the menace for the collective survival of people in the state.

Read Also:  Breaking: NNPC exposes companies responsible for importing adulterated fuel

“Communities must work together under the traditional institutions, religious leaders and community leaders are to source for an alternative method of preserving and protecting their lives, properties and communities as our security architecture proves incapacitated and or reluctant to decisively and resolutely deal with the problem,” CNG noted.

Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Gafai, the Deputy Provost of the Federal College of Education in Katsina, has died. Dr. Gafai died today after a long illness, according to a family source.
At around 10:00 a.m., his funeral will take place at his home in Gafai quarters behind the AP filling station.

Read also:  2023 presidency: What Abdulsalami told Adebayo, Mega Party candidate

Details will be provided later…