POLICE NABS CANNABIS PEDDLERS

LAGOS, Nigeria – A suspected gang of illegal drug peddlers were on Friday, intercepted at Ajidun waterways by men of the police force, led by the DSP Osolu Kingdom, while attempting to smuggle weeds suspected to be Cannabis Marijuana. The suspects, Segun Bashiru, Yusuf Gbadamosi, Ahmed Lawal and Ismaeli Anikulapo, were yesterday, paraded at the Lagos police command headquarters at a briefing for pressmen.Segun was alleged to have led the group to transport 18 bales of banned drugs via the waterways from Ajidun to Ojo on behalf of one Ola.

According to Segun, “I wasn’t aware that the goods were drugs. I was contacted by one Ola who came to my area in Moda to procure land early last year. He later didn’t buy the land again. On Thursday night, he called around 10am and said he wanted me to help him take clothes across the water from Ajidun to Ojo since he wasn’t familiar with the environment.

“I refused due to the timing. Upon persistence, I finally decided to go around 12am so I called up Yusuf who is a canoe rider. Yusuf came and we went to get the goods from Ola. When I saw the sealed bags, I realised that they weren’t clothes so I asked him about it but he played around it and promised to pay N100,000 for the services

“Later on, Yusuf and I got Ahmed Lawal and Ismaeli Anikulapo to load the boats with the sacks while one Ibrahim was contacted to ride the other boat because of the load. Along the line, while we were ferrying the goods, we were accosted by policemen engaged us in a chase. Ibrahim fell into the water as a process and my phone with Ola’s contact was lost.”

Ahmed and Ismaeli said they had never peddled drugs before and were not even aware of the contents of the sacks which they loaded into the boats. Ahmed said he had been at home for eight months due to joblessness and decided to load boats to earn a legal living. 

Among the recovered 18 bales of drugs were also N250,000 found with Segun. Ibrahim, the other boat rider has still not been recovered from the water while efforts to track Ola had proven futile as at the time of filing this report. The matter has been charged to court for hearing