By Favour Goodness
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said it has arrested a 34-year-old arms dealer, Donatus Igwebudu in Onitsha, Anambra state.
Mr Femi Babafemi, NDLEA’s Director, Media and Advocacy, on Friday in Abuja said the Igwebudu’s arrest was prompted after the agency intercepted 64,000 pump action cartridges and a new pump-action gun in a store at Onitsha.
He said the arrest followed credible intelligence on drugs and arms deals in the location.
“Backed by soldiers, NDLEA operatives stormed the store on Wednesday and moved the arm and ammunition to the agency’s office in Awka,’’ he said.
In another development, the agency also said it rescued 34 children aged between eight to 14 on the Okene-Lokoja Expressway.
On the children, Babafemi said that they were intercepted by the NDLEA’s operatives on patrol on the Okene-Lokoja Expressway.
Babafemi said the children were being trafficked from Ijebu Ode in Ogun to Abuja.
He said the minors were packed in two commercial buses; Toyota Sienna and a 12-Seater Mazda, with registration numbers, Lagos LND124FV and Oyo BDJ-683YK respectively.
The rescued children aged between eight to 14 years old.
“The bus drivers confirmed that the kids were handed over to them by a woman at Ijebu Ode to be conveyed to Abuja.’’
According to him, on arrival in the FCT, the woman is to call another bus driver who will convey the children to Riyom in Plateau State.
“It was further revealed that the children were initially trafficked from Plateau state to Ijebu Ode, where they were distributed to different households as domestic servants.
“Some of the children were discovered to have served for two years and their rewards sent to the woman’s agent in Jos,’’ he said.
Bababfemi said the NDLEA’s Chairman, retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa commended operatives of the Anambra and Kogi commands for their vigilance.
Marwa charged them to sustain the tempo and directed that the arm and ammunition along with the suspect arrested in Anambra be transferred to the police.
He said the 34 trafficked children should be transferred to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation
