The number of suspected drug traffickers arrested at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) alone in 2015 stood at 139, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has revealed.
The MMIA Commander, Mr Garba Ahmadu speaking with journalists in his office disclosed that out of the 139, suspects 119 were male, while 20 were female.
“In 2015, we made 590.9 kilograms of seizure while about 120 cases were before the Federal High Court, with 17 convicted.
“There was a little increase in arrests by the command because we made a seizure of 436,065kg in 2014 while it increased in 2015 to 590.9kg.
“Similarly 129 suspects were arrested in 2014 while 139 suspects were arrested in 2015. We believe the increase in arrest was due to officers growing awareness to tricks employed by traffickers, which is an impact of trainings of officers,” he said.
Meanwhile, A total of 577 drug suspects were arrested in Lagos.
While 438 drug suspects were arrested by the Lagos command of the NDLEA between January and November 2015, the airport command arrested 139 suspects same period.
The Lagos State commander of the NDLEA Alhaji Aliyu Sule, giving the figures to journalists while speaking on the activities of his command in 2015 also disclosed that a total of 7,315 kilo grams (over 7 tonnes ) of various drugs were seized during the period.
The airport commander, Ahmadu enumerated means of drug concealment by drug traffickers to include, bags, shoes, injections adding that the more worrisome trend include the use of indomie pack and tomato paste to concealed drugs.
He said that officers of the agency were at alert at the airport putting their trainings and machines to practice.
Ahmadu stressed the need for more training of officers and funding of the agency advising would be drug traffickers to steer clear of the airport.
A breakdown showed that cannabis 7313.06kg, Heroine 413.5kg, Cannabis sativa 480g were seized.
The Lagos commander, Sule disclosed that there has been a drop in the number of arrest this year compared to the previous years adding that the command was becoming more pro active than before in trailing suspects.
According to him, the NDLEA Lagos command between 2011 and 2012 made a seizure of drugs between 10 tonnes and 8 tonnes compared to the 7 tonnes this year.
Alhaji Sule explained that the command has continue to swoop at the drugs suspects hide out and mount road blocks on the highways to arrest suspects adding that it was responsible for the decline.
He appealed to Nigerians to cooperate with NDLEA as the war against drug trafficking was a collective responsibility.
Alhaji Sule who regretted various attacks on his men while carrying out their duties also appealed to well meaning Nigerians, Corporate bodies and the government to come to their aid by providing logistics for them to carry out their duties more effectively.